Art Pope Stepping Down As Budget Director

Just long enough to do the damage...

Art Pope stepping down as North Carolina budget director

BY JOHN FRANK, JFRANK@NEWSOBSERVER.COM
August 6, 2014 | Updated 19 minutes ago

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s budget director Art Pope, a major conservative donor with broad influence who became a lightning rod for critics, is leaving his post in Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration.

McCrory announced the move Wednesday and named his replacement, Lee Roberts, a Raleigh bank executive who is the son of broadcast journalist and political analyst Cokie Roberts.

Pope said he will return to running his family’s retail business, Variety Wholesalers, and declined to discuss in detail his plans for his future political involvement, though he did say he would continue to support candidates.

The governor said the departure was anticipated and not related to Pope’s controversial role in the administration. Democratic activists consider Pope a lightning rod because he helped finance the 2010 campaign that gave Republicans control of the state legislature for the first time in more than a century.

When he hired Pope at the start of his term in 2013, McCrory said Pope agreed to serve just one year at a $1 annual salary. McCrory said he convinced Pope to remain on the team through the end of the two-year legislative cycle. Pope said he expected to officially step down Sept. 5.

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