Power Shift Has Government Opponent Running N.C. Budget

For more than two decades, North Carolina businessman Art Pope advocated free markets and limited government. Now he’s in a position to turn his views into reality.

Pope, 56, chairman of Variety Wholesalers Inc., an operator of discount retail stores, was appointed as budget director by new Governor Pat McCrory. Pope, a long-time Republican donor, took office this month after elections in which his party took control of the governorship and legislature for the first time in more than a century.