So gradually did Art Pope became the powerful patron of the political right in North Carolina that few at first noticed. First he created the John Locke Foundation, a respected think tank churning out reports proclaiming the virtues of limited government. Then another think tank, to keep tabs on the state's colleges, was spun out of the Locke Foundation.

In recent years, Pope has created other organizations to sway public opinion, monitor the legislature, develop grass-roots political efforts and bring court challenges.

As a result, Pope, 49, a Raleigh retail executive, has emerged as an important behind-the-scenes figure 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.

One Pope organization is asking the courts to throw out the state lottery. Another is leading the charge against a Wake County school bond issue. And if you watch one of the talking-head TV shows, you are likely to see one of Pope's paid spinmeisters.

Pope Political Inc. now has 50 people on its payroll, including academics, journalists, political operatives, lawyers and a former N.C. Supreme Court judge.

Pope's reach extends beyond the public policy factory he has created. The Pope family has given so much money to the state Republican Party -- at least $700,000 in recent years -- that the party headquarters bears the family's name.

Not since the 1970s, with the creation of the National Congressional Club to serve as the political organization of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, has there been a conservative network in North Carolina with such reach. Some Pope lieutenants see Pope Political Inc. as filling the vacuum left when the Helms organization collapsed in the 1990s.

"We are creating a freedom movement in the state," said Chris Neeley, director of one of the Pope-funded groups, Americans for Prosperity. "It's a march toward eventually putting conservatives in office and getting conservatives to support conservative issues."

Even as many conservatives cheer Pope's patronage, he has created enemies who feel that one man has gained too much power. They say Pope 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, a Republican from Cary, whom Pope helped drive from office.

"What is scary about Art Pope is that it is one person," Miner said. "There is not any committee. 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."

The center of Pope Political Inc. is Hillsborough Place, a four-story office building in downtown Raleigh, across the street from the state Democratic Party headquarters. A Pope family real estate company bought the building for $11.1 million last year.

It houses The John William Pope Civitas Institute, Pope's legislative monitoring arm; Americans for Prosperity, its political arm; and the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, its legal arm, as well as organizations unrelated to Pope. On the same block, but in a separate building, is the John Locke Foundation, its research and communications arm.

Family beginnings

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.

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