Another lengthy, in-depth investigative report on the octopus grip that Art Pope now holds on the state of North Carolina. In it, there's this section which recounts the death of our state's pioneering system of public financing for judicial races, a system which kept huge special interest money from buying judges
outright. Reprinted here to document Rep. Jonathan Jordan's inability to have independent judgment when Mr. Moneybags taps him on the shoulder.
More than a decade ago, Pope strongly objected when the legislature created a pioneering campaign financing system for Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judicial elections.
“Candidate welfare,” he said at the time.
The voluntary program was celebrated by advocates of stricter campaign finance rules as a national model for limiting the ability of special interests to influence judges, by providing them with access to public funding.
“While other states were having just outrageous sums being spent on these statewide judicial races, North Carolina’s races stayed relatively inexpensive,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a government watchdog group.
When McCrory introduced his first budget in 2013, the program had been eliminated.
Supporters scrambled to find a way to salvage it, enlisting state Rep. Jonathan Jordan (R) to sponsor an amendment that would allow it to continue in a scaled-down form.
The day the issue was set to be discussed in the House, Pope took Jordan aside in a hallway outside the chamber, arguing that the amendment was unconstitutional.
Jordan shelved his measure. The lawmaker, who received $16,000 in campaign contributions from the Pope family when he ran in 2010, did not return requests for comment.
Pope said it was appropriate for him to make the case about the merits of the governor’s budget to a state lawmaker, acknowledging that he has long personally been opposed to such public campaign finance programs.
Asked if he played a role in McCrory’s thinking, Pope said, “I gave my analysis and advice to the governor.”
This year, outside money has targeted North Carolina judicial races, including an $800,000 campaign that accused Hudson of being soft on child molesters. One of Hudson’s challengers was Jeanette Doran, former executive director of the Pope-backed North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. She placed third in the May primary, but Hudson was forced into a runoff with another Republican.
4 comments:
This is one more reason why we need to support Sue Counts against Jordan in November. He is not responsive to the people, but to special interests like Pope.
No author cited for this "investigative report." Wonder why? Perhaps not a credible source? Or maybe just an anonymous attempt from the left to disparage Rep. Jordan?
Since Jordan worked for the John Locke Foundation, Pope's version of the Koch Brother's operation (ALEC) and our own John Birch Society, before Pope embedded him in Ashe County, no big surprise that he controls him. Jordan sure as hell doesn't care one iota about what impact his bills have on the local people. Except for his other sugar daddy, Daddy Warbucks Templeton. Jonathan knows which side his toast is buttered on, that's for certain.
Anon 8:56AM
I could not have expressed that any better. I also can not figure out why the NC electorate continues to vote against their own economic interests and express completely absurd perspectives as demonstrated by Anon 5:28PM. Rep. Jordan is simply a tool. I am very excited by the prospect of a decent citizen in the form of Sue Counts stepping forward to represent us. It's a thankless job that most of us wouldn't wish on our worse enemy. I appreciate her commitment. Unfortunately these public positions and politics in general attract sycophants and deadbeats like Jordan—like flies on a cow-patty. Whether you are Dem or Rep, you should be outraged by the actions of our present state politicians. They are running this state into the ground. The Washington Post article was extremely detailed and insightful about the political influence Art Pope has purchased. It is obviously so egregious that it is attracting national attention. As another poster pointed out previously, this group in power is very effective about using emotional rhetoric to rile up their base and remove all reason and logic from the political discourse. Voting them out, slowly but surely is the only solution.
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