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[[Image:Art pope2.jpg|right|frame|Art Pope]]
'''Art Pope''' is the president and vice-chairman of the board of directors for Variety Wholesalers Inc., and a director of the right-wing group [[Americans for Prosperity]], which organized the [[Tax Day Tea Party|Tax Day Tea Parties]] across the country, and which organized "town hall" opposition to health care reform in 2009. He is a member of the board of directors of the [[John Locke Foundation]], the [[Atlas Economic Research Foundation]], and the [[North Carolina Retail Merchants Association]].<ref name="Bio">[http://www.americansforprosperity.org/about/directors "Art Pope"], Americans for Prosperity website, accessed September 2009.</ref>
==Background== Pope created , a graduate of Duke University School of Law, is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association. He has worked as "special counsel to the governor in 1985, running for the lieutenant governorship in 1992, and being chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1992 and 1996."<ref name="Bio"/> Pope was also the founder of the right-wing, free market [[John Locke Foundation]], which accepts money from the [[tobacco industry]].<ref>Tommy J. Payne, R.J. Reynolds [http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/zws50d00 Please find enclosed a check in the amount of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) made payable to the John Locke Foundation.] Letter. 1 page. February 2, 2000. Bates No. 522493786</ref> ==Funding Campaigns Against Moderate Republicans==
In 2006, the Raleigh ''News and Observer'' reported that Pope "has created other organizations to sway public opinion, monitor the legislature, develop grass-roots political efforts and bring court challenges" and that he had spent "millions of dollars on a network whose purpose is to move North Carolina to the political right." His goal was to purge the North Carolina state House of Representatives of Republican moderates. According to journalist Rob Christensen, Pope "created two new tax-exempt organizations. The [[Republican Legislative Majority of North Carolina]] was bankrolled with $260,000 in contributions from [[Variety Wholesalers]]. A Pope-formed state chapter of a national group, Americans for Prosperity, contributed more than $200,000 ... The Pope effort helped defeat Republican Reps. Rex Baker of King, Keith Williams of Jacksonville, Michael Gorman of New Bern and Michael Decker of Forsyth County. Pope came within a whisker of knocking off Morgan and Rep. Rick Eddins of Raleigh."<ref>Rob Christensen, [http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/394092.html "The knight of the right: Ex-legislator Art Pope has quietly built a political network to advance his conservative vision for North Carolina"], Raleigh ''News and Observer'', January 29, 2006.</ref>
===External articles===
*John Grooms, [http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/unhealthy_lies_and_the_truth_about_health_care_reform/Content?oid=696999 "Unhealthy lies and the truth about healthcare reform"], ''Creative Loafing'', August 18, 2009.
===References===
