NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Advocacy group Clean Politics, Clean Water NC is standing behind the guerilla-style signs, cutouts and flyers placed around New Hanover County against Sen. Michael Lee and his clean water record. However, a well-known local attorney representing Lee said the campaign team is considering legal action.
Woody White, who is representing the Michael Lee for North Carolina Senate Campaign — and used to be a New Hanover County commissioner, serves on The Endowment and UNC Board of Governors — released a statement Thursday afternoon. The team accuses Clean Politics, Clean Water NC of breaking North Carolina General Statute 163-274, “false and derogatory statements intended to influence an election outcome.” White also echoed Lee’s accusations from earlier this week that the signs placed in road rights-of-way, in stores and on the side of businesses, without permission, equates vandalism and trespassing.
While no charges have been filed yet, White told Port City Daily they are investigating the matter and “learning more by the hour.”
READ MORE: State senator demands opponent, NHC Democratic chair to denounce ‘smear campaign,’ vandalism
“It is our intent to aggressively pursue the agitators, and those funding them, to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
Clean Water, Clean Politics NC talked to Port City Daily early Thursday and responded to White’s statements as well.
“Mike Lee has demonstrated that when he is PISSED he is capable of swift and forceful action,” Clean Politics, Clean Water NC spokesperson Jenny Kay, of D.C.-based Kay Communications, said. “It’s a shame he hasn’t brought that same urgency, focus, and determination to protecting North Carolina families and cleaning up our drinking water from toxic forever chemicals.”
Kay told Port City Daily the group is not affiliated with any party and is C4-funded. The organization is not registered through the North Carolina Board of Elections, the Federal Election Commission, the IRS, or the North Carolina Secretary of State, and hasn’t filed campaign reports in North Carolina elections.
Kay confirmed its formation is new — occurring within the last few months.
“It’s a coalition of citizens from across the area,” she said, upon being asked who found it.
Kay also noted the organization formed to focus on Michael Lee: “The mission of this organization is to hold those accountable for clean water and clean politics.”
The group placed 100 posters, 400 smaller signs, and 60 cardboard cutouts across New Hanover County. Aside from the large posters, materials also include flyers placed in front of water bottles in grocery stores indicating “Mike Lee’s special interest special. Polluters get away with it! Now you pay to drink your water!” There are also cardboard cutouts of Lee in an “I ♥ Special Interest” t-shirt holding a pile of money in one hand and a water bottle labeled “tapped out spring” in the other. The cutout portrays Lee as having wet himself.
“We consider them ‘issue ads,’” Kay explained, when asked whether the materials are campaign or protest/advocacy-based.
The organization adhered 18-by-6-foot posters on some buildings, though Kay didn’t have an exact number or specific locations. One was plastered on the side of Black Cat Halloween earlier this week and the business owner plans to file a police report by Friday should the person or people behind it not come forward to pay for its removal.
Three posters were adhered at the 806 S. College Road building with the messaging “Mike Lee backed polluters, now you pay for bottled water” on it, another mimicked a Poland Springs logo, featuring the words “tapped out spring.”
The signs faced a busy corridor of College Road, which ushers through more than 55,000 vehicles daily. Kay said the goal was to place posters in highly visible areas “to get this message to as many people as possible.”
Lee’s campaign reached out to the North Carolina Department of Transportation regarding the cardboard cutouts. Crews removed 37 Lee signs across Wilmington, including areas along College Road and Independence Boulevard. Five additional signs representing other political candidates were also taken away.
“The signs were picked up for safety reasons due to their height,” NCDOT spokesperson Lauren Jenkins told Port City Daily.
North Carolina General Statute 136-32 mandates no sign — specifically farm and political signs — can be higher than 42 inches tall above the edge of the pavement of the road.
Jenkins added NCDOT will remove others if found. There could be around 23 cardboard cutouts still in rotation if 37 out of 60 were removed.
Kay also stood firm that Clean Politics, Clean Water NC actions were not vandalous.
“But it is making people pay attention for a number of different reasons,” she said, noting Lee’s responses have likely amplified the ads and put more of a spotlight on himself.
Lee released a statement Tuesday urging his opponent Jessica Bichler and the New Hanover County Democratic Party Chair Jill Hopman to condemn them. Both disavowed vandalism of any businesses targeted with the signs without permission. However, Bichler and Hopman stood firm that Lee’s voting record on clean water is questionable.
Kay said the campaign has put more eyes on the issue of water pollution.
“I think that the most important thing is that these ads, they’re clearly controversial in getting people talking, but we think that that’s really important, ” she said. “It’s brought more attention to PFAS pollution — and we think that that’s a really good thing.”
Lee introduced a Water Safety Act every term since GenX surfaced in the Cape Fear River in 2017; some of the acts have passed and included statewide testing, research, replacement water for affected communities and other remedies. The most recent Water Safety Act filed in April 2026 didn’t pass but some of it ended up in the state budget — such as funding research, studies and an emerging contaminant mitigation fund. It left out maximum contaminant levels and enforcement of PFAS discharge from industries in the state. Lee said he planned to take these issues up again after failing to get support from his colleagues in the General Assembly.
He also defended his voting record and the notion he takes “bribes” for votes, in light of the signs: “Criticism comes with running for office. I will gladly defend my record on clean water, answer for my votes and debate the issues. But voters deserve facts, and our politics deserves basic standards.”
The recent controversy follows AI-created ads Lee’s campaign ran about Bichler earlier this year, showcasing the yoga instructor and business owner stretching in an impossible knot, indicating she leaned into far-left “bonkers” politics. A cease and desist letter was sent as the original ad stated Bichler was endorsed by and received financial support from the American Friends Service Committee — which she has denied.
The reference to the AFSC has since been removed though the video ad still is airing.
Port City Daily asked the Clean Politics, Clean Water NC spokesperson how their signs were created and if AI was used — and if so, how it would square using AI when it has been reported to contribute to water pollution.
“While Mike Lee uses AI for his campaign, our team of humans used cardboard, bottled water, and a staple gun and glue,” Kay said.
She didn’t address the creation of the imagery.
Kay added the organization plans to remove all the ads after the election and doesn’t intend making a local business pay the price of removal.
On Thursday, Black Cat Halloween owner Matt Wright told Port City Daily he already had someone extract the adhesive posters on the side of the brick building and is awaiting the bill. He plans to file it with charges he will take out this week if the perpetrators don’t come forward to help cover the costs. Wright estimated Tuesday it would be around $250.
“They can pay it or they will still be paying it through restitution,” Wright said Thursday, disagreeing with Clean Politics, Clean Water NC it isn’t vandalism. “Someone from their group needs to contact me before that bill comes due … I do find it odd that they vandalized a building and then think they set the time on when they will fix the vandalism.”
[Ed. Note: The piece has been edited to reflect Clean Politics, Clean Water NC is C4-funded, not a 501(c)(4) nonprofit entity; PCD regrets the error.]
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