african-american, make your wealth off of people, pay them low wages, and then, in turn, use that power to push and promote policies that are adverse to their lives and diametrically opposed to their future is just untenable. what we have seen with art pope, you listed all those numbers $50 million over the last decade, $3.5 million since 2010 through 2012, millions of dollars, either him or his family or groups that he influences used to promote the most extreme policies. and you know, you mentioned about the 2010 takeover, but he actually was a part of the redistricting plan that led to that takeover which produced the most race-based redistricting plan we ve seen since the 19th century. rachel, everywhere we look, whether it s denying unemployment to 170,000 people or medicaid expanded to 500,000 people or rolling back the earned income tax credit or
not just about black people, it s poor people, white people, hispanics, anybody who is poor, to think that you go in and you spend your money in a certain place, and that money that you helped them make is actually used in ways to undermine your future, your health, your voting rights, your public education, your rights in the court system. it s just wrong. and so, what we re doing is making sure people know. how they choose to spend their money after that will be their own determination, like in civil disobedience, their own free will and accord, but people must know, this must be exposed. art pope has gone from being a king-maker, a private person to now a north carolina employee. he s the budget director, one of the most powerful positions in any state. and budgets are moral documents. and what he is promoting is constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible and economically insane. and people need to know how he s
family, now run by james melvin s grandson, art pope, who has parlayed his family s discount stores selling to poor and minority populations fortune into his own enormous political power in the state of north carolina. the pope family has given so much money to republican causes in the state of north carolina that the party s state headquarters building is named for them. before 2010, republicans had not controlled both houses of the north carolina state legislature since the 1800s, but then, art pope and his conservative funding network poured about $100,000 per race into 22 different legislative races across the state, and in so doing, they engineered a republican takeover of the legislature. three-quarters of all the outside money that flooded into races in that state in 2010, three-quarters of it came from accounts that were linked to art pope. and of the 22 races that he and his network targeted, they won 18 of the 22. that s an 82% win rate.
accounts that were linked to art pope. and of the 22 races that he and his network targeted, they won 18 of the 22. that s an 82% win rate. and north carolina s legislature turned completely red for the first time since reconstruction. and that, of course, has brought about not only the voting rights role back that has made north carolina nationally famous this year, and the abortion rights role back and the short-lived attempt to establish a state religion in the state. remember that one? it s also been a wildly aggressive approach to budgeting in the state, spearheaded by the guy who made it all possible for the republicans, spearheaded by art pope, the architect of the north carolina republican takeover, but who is also the state s new budget director under republican governor pat mccrory. under republican control and art pope s budget stylings, north carolina has pursued deep, deep, deep cuts in education and unemployment benefits and health insurance for the poor. they ve even gon
policies that will pretty directly hit the shoppers at the pope family stores, right? bargain town, bill s dollar store, the super 10 the super dollar, treasure mart, roses, maxway, all of the dollar stores that are part of their empire, all of the discount dollar stores that have made art pope and his family all of their many millions, which they have now spent to go after the poor in north carolina in a way that nobody has in more than 100 years. today, the state s naacp held a news conference outside the state budget office, outside art pope s office, announcing a campaign targeting mr. pope s discount stores. they re calling it a picketing campaign to educate dollar store customers about what they called the extreme and aggressive policies that they are funding by shopping at stores owned by mr. pope. we want to put a stop to the use of wealth to influence policies in a negative way. that s why it s not a boycott, it s a picket. if i came to the north