North Carolina has two right-wing think tanks associated with the State Policy Network: The John

Locke Foundation and the John William Pope Civitas Institute. The State Policy Network (SPN) is an umbrella group of right-wing think tanks across the country. While the Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute claim to be focused on issues important to the people of the Tar Heel state, they actually push an agenda dictated by its right-wing funders and partners, such as Art Pope and the Koch brothers.

Art Pope has been called the "third Koch brother" in The Washington Post and the "Knight of the Right" by The New Yorker magazine. Pope, who works as the president and vice chairman of Variety Wholesalers, is one of the four national directors at the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity. Over the years, Pope has spent millions funding conservative groups and right-wing politicians, making him one of the most powerful political figures in North Carolina.

Art Pope speaking at an Americans for Prosperity event. The Republican agenda in North Carolina is really Art Popes agenda. He sets it, he funds it, and he directs the efforts to achieve it. The candidates are just fronting for him. - NC Political Strategist Marc Farinella

ArtPopeExposed - a project of the Institute for Southern Studies - found that the John William Pope Foundation, which Pope chairs, supplies 90 percent of the income for leading right-wing groups in North Carolina. Included in those groups are North Carolina's two SPN think tanks: the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Foundation, both which were founded by Pope.

Pope is a close ally to the Koch brothers, having been recognized at the Kochs' exclusive 2011 retreat in Vail, Colorado for donating at least $1 million to Koch causes. Pope is also noted for launching attack ad campaigns against Democrats and moderate Republicans. Additionally, Pope has also been a major funder of Tea Party activities and advocacy efforts denying the science of climate change.

"In pursuit of his goals, Pope, like the Kochs, has created a network combining a family fortune, the resources of a large private company, and family-funded policy organizations. Of the forty million dollars that his network has spent in the past decade, thirty-five million has gone to half a dozen ostensibly nonpartisan policy groups, which he has been instrumental in creating and directing."
- Investigative journalist Jane Meyer in The New Yorker

Art Pope with NC Gov. Pat McCrory, who named Pope his chief budget author.

Pope has been widely criticized, including in the Independent Weekly and by Democracy North Carolina, for using profits from Variety Wholesalers, which targets low income and minority populations, to fund his right-wing organizations. Variety is also known for selling merchandise made mostly in faraway countries like China and Pakistan (and not in NC) and paying Variety's workers low wages.

Pope's John Locke Foundation is an active member of the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where corporate lobbyists and lawmakers vote on "model" bills to be introduced as law in statehouses behind closed doors, with no public input, that often benefits the corporations' bottom line. Internal ALEC task force documents shows that the Locke Foundation has been a private sector member of at least five ALEC task forces: Education; Energy, Environment, and Agriculture; Health and Human Services, Public Safety and Elections, and Tax and Fiscal Policy. Not surprisingly, Pope's Civitas Institute has also pushed a number of ALEC-backed policies.

Both the Civitas Institute and the Locke Foundation have been strong proponents in pushing North Carolina's recent "Voter ID" law, which targets minorities, elderly, and young people's right to vote. The Civitias Institute and its direct action organization, Civitas Action, launched petition and email drives in support of the voter suppression law, and even created a fundraising campaign for itself celebrating Civitas's work in helping pass voter ID in North Carolina. Similarly, the John Locke Foundation was also a major supporter of the suppression effort, releasing reports and studies in favor of voter ID and holding events promoting the voter suppression law. The Locke Foundation was also a member of ALEC's Public Safety and Elections Task Force that created a model "Voter ID Act" which inspired North Carolina's voter suppression law.

"The John W. Pope Civitas Institute, which receives more than 90 percent of its funding from Pope's family foundation, has been the state's leading policy advocate for voter ID restrictions and dismantling the state's clean elections programs."
- Chris Kromm, the Institute for Southern Studies

Block access to affordable healthcare Make it harder to for minorities, the elderly, and students to vote While Art Pope's fortune is the main funding mechanism for both the Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute, both right-wing think tanks have received other sources of funding, largely from right-wing foundations. Both Civitas and Locke have received funding from the Koch-funded Donors Capital Fund and Donors Trust, which have been called the "dark money ATM of the conservative movement." Included in the $740,600 from Donors to the Locke Foundation is $50,000 for the foundation to participate in ALEC. Other right-wing funders of the John Locke Foundation include $134,472 from the Koch foundations, $250,000 from the Roe Foundation (of SPN founder Thomas Roe), the Jaquelin Hume Foundation, the Chase Foundation of Virginia, the JM Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust. The only other known funding sources for the Civitas Institute besides Art Pope are the Donors groups and the New York-based JM Foundation, which gave Civitas a $30,000 grant in 2012. The Donors groups have contributed over $59,000 to Civitas, including $40,000 for their right-wing statehouse news reporting program. The Independent Weekly estimates between 2005 and 2011, the Pope Foundation provided more than $8 million to the Civitas Institute roughly 97 percent of the think tanks total income during that time. Defund and privatize North Carolina's public schools through vouchers Restrict workers' collective bargaining rights Repeal minimum wage laws Lower, or in some cases repeal, corporate taxes Oppose renewable energy sources and repeal pollution protections Oppose marriage equality and equal rights for gay and lesbians Oppose gun safety measures
John Locke Foundation, accessed 8/29/2013 Civitas Institute, accessed 8/29/2013

The John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute advocate for lowering corporate taxes, restricting workers' rights, repealing minimum and living wage laws, and opposing government regulations on businesses all polices that benefit the organizations' primary funder and founder: Art Pope. This is not to mention how their opposition to the clean energy, environmental protections, corporate taxes, and workers' rights also benefit the Koch brothers' corporate interests, who are also SPN funders and close allies of Pope. In the end, by destroying workers' rights and blocking voting rights of those who may support their ideological opponents, the John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute are helping conservative politicians win elections that are more likely to support their agenda to benefit their corporate backers like Pope and the Kochs.