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The Facts Behind the

John Locke Foundation[July 19, 2007, Sylva, NC]

Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation is

stepping up its efforts to encourage continued

uncontrolled development in Western North

Carolina. The political organization has

established an office in the mountains and has

launched a Wild West blog devoted to

undermining any local leaders who address the

serious negative impacts of development on the

health and safety of local residents and the

environment.

While its spokesmen frequently use terms like

liberty and property rights, the publicposturing of the John Locke Foundation

conceals the personal agenda and ambitions of

its founder, Art Pope. Former state legislator

Richard Morgan, Republican from Moore

County, calls Pope:

an eccentric millionaire with gobs of

money.I feel compelled to stand up to Artand

the people Art influences with his money and tryto prevent our party from being turned back in

time and turning the states clock back 50years.

Other details on the Pope empire are found in a

2006News and Observerarticle written by RobChristensen:

Pope, 49, a Raleigh retail executive, has

emerged as an important behind-the-scenesfigure in Tar Heel politics, spending millions of

dollars on a network whose purpose is to move

North Carolina to the political right.

You might call it Pope Political Inc.

Pope Political Inc. now has 50 people on itspayroll, including academics, journalists,political operatives, lawyers and a former N.C.

Supreme Court judge.

The Pope fortune was made in hundreds of small

towns across the South. Started in the 1930s in

Fuquay-Varina, Variety Wholesalers grew over

the years to more than 500 discount stores and

10,000 employees. The company operates stores

under several names, including Rose's, Maxway

and Super 10. Privately held, the company

competes with the likes of Wal-Mart and Dollar

Stores in 14 states.

The vehicle for the family's giving is the PopeFoundation, whose assets had a fair market

value of $53.6 million in June, according to tax

documents.

Even as many conservatives cheer Pope's

patronage, he has created enemies who feel that

one man has gained too much power. They sayPope is bankrolling half of a civil war in the

GOP to purge Republican moderates in the state

House of Representatives.

Among his critics is former state Rep. David

Miner, aRepublican from Cary, whom Pope

helped drive from office.

"What is scary about Art Pope is that it is oneperson," Miner said. "There is not anycommittee. There is no oversight. There is no

elected official involved to face the voters every

two years or every six years. It's him and his

own personal agenda, and he is throwing his

money around big time. Art Pope wants to

control North Carolina politics."

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Beyond its attacks on moderate Republicans and

on regulations that would hold developers

accountable for negative impacts on local

communities, Popes John Locke Foundation

uses corporate funding to advance its messagethat global warming is a myth. In a 2005

article for theIndependent Weekly

,investigative

journalist Sue Sturgis exposed how the fossil-

fuel industry backs the Pope political

machine:

While Locke does not take money directly from

Exxon, it does receive fundingfrom other fossil

fuel interests andfrom organizations that are

themselves funded by ExxonMobil. But it does

not openly disclose that fact.

According to one of Popes assistants at the John

Locke Foundation:

his organization did not receive money fromutilities or other fossil fuel concerns in recent

years. However, complete returns for the past

three years obtained through the New York-

based Foundation Centershow Locke received

at least $81,500 from organizations with fossil

fuel ties during that period. (http://fdncenter.org)

In fiscal year 2003, the most recent year for

which a return was publicly available, Locke's

second-largest contributor was the Claude R.

Lambe Charitable Foundation.

One of the Koch Family funds,(www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htm) the foundation is operated

by David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries,

the largest privately held oil conglomerate in the

United States and a leading contributor among

gas and oil companies in the 2004 federal

election cycle, according to a recent report by

the Washington-based Center for Public

Integrity (CPI).(www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=34

7)

"Although it is both a top campaign contributorand spends millions on direct lobbying, Koch's

chief political influence tool is a web of

interconnected, right-wing think tanks and

advocacy groups funded by foundationscontrolled and supported by the two Koch

brothers," the CPI report states.

In 2001, the John Locke Foundation received

$6,500 from the Center for Energy and

Economic Development (CEED), an Amarillo,

Texas-based nonprofit whose Web site says it is

"dedicated to protecting the viability of coal-

based electricity."

(www.ceednet.org/ceed/index.cfm?cid=7504)

Locke has also taken money from groups funded

by ExxonMobil, according to

www.exxonsecrets.org, a database sponsored byGreenpeace USA. In 2002, for example, Locke

got $5,000 from The DCI Group of Phoenix, a

Republican lobbying firm whose Tech Central

Station Web site is sponsored by ExxonMobil,

and in 2001 it received $10,000 from the Atlas

Economic Research Foundation (AERF) of

Fairfax, Va., which in turn has received more

than $500,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.

In additionArt Pope has served on the boards

of AERF and Citizens for a Sound Economy, a

Washington-based organization founded by theKochs that has received more than $380,000

from ExxonMobil since 1998, according to

www.exxonsecrets.org.

The political operatives in Popes employ

relentlessly crank out opinion pieces,

editorials and quasi-academic policy papers

aimed at undermined anyone working for clean

energy or prudent controls on development.

When you read between the lines, the consistentmessage of the John Locke Foundation is that the

protection of local communities and the

environment can be, indeed MUST be, sacrificedin the cause of freedom.

But make no mistake. The freedom that theArt Pope juggernaut desires is for corporate

interests like utility companies and big

developers to continue plundering North

Carolina for their own enrichment and

without regard for the working people of the

state. For the most part, the people of Jackson

County are too smart to fall for Popes John

Locke Foundation propaganda.

Sources The Knight of the Right, Rob Christensen,

News and Observer, January 29, 2006.

Turning the Warming Tide, Sue Sturgis,Independent Weekly, May 11, 2005.

http://fdncenter.org/http://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htmhttp://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htmhttp://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347http://www.ceednet.org/ceed/index.cfm?cid=7504http://www.exxonsecrets.org/http://www.exxonsecrets.org/http://www.exxonsecrets.org/http://www.exxonsecrets.org/http://fdncenter.org/http://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htmhttp://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htmhttp://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347http://www.ceednet.org/ceed/index.cfm?cid=7504http://www.exxonsecrets.org/http://www.exxonsecrets.org/