Governor McCrory and His Patron, Art Pope, Attack Common Good in North Carolina
I had never heard of Art Pope until the fall of 2011, when Jane Mayer wrote a scathing profilefor the New Yorker magazine about the man who was operating to dominate North Carolina state politics under the freedom created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010, Citizens Uniteddecision that “struck down limits on corporate campaign spending.”
On January 3, 2014, Bill Moyers & Company traced the growing power of Art Pope in State of Conflict: North Carolina, a documentary on one of the states where today Republicans control both houses of the General Assembly and the governor’s mansion. I urge you to watch this program.
Art Pope, owner of Variety Wholesalers, has continued to consolidate power. Moyers reports: “At the heart of this conservative onslaught sits a businessman who is so wealthy and powerful that he is frequently described as the state’s own ‘Koch brother.’ Art Pope, whose family fortune was made via a chain of discount stores, has poured tens of millions of dollars into a network of foundations and think tanks that advocate a wide range of conservative
