Following Pope's lead

by Thomas Mills, Politics North Carolina, January 22, 2015.

In 1990, when Art Pope set up the John Locke Foundation, North Carolina’s second Republican governor since Reconstruction was in the middle of his second term. In the state house, a group of rebellious Democrats had engineered a coup by forging an alliance with Republicans to overthrow Speaker Liston Ramsey. Pope must have sensed the tide was turning in the state and the Republicans were ascendant. 

However, 1992 would have been a disappointment. Jim Hunt was elected governor for the third time and Democrats retained control of both houses of the legislature. While the GOP would take the house in the 1994, victories for the GOP would be few and fleeting until 2010. Pope could have closed up shop after any number of defeats, but he didn’t. 

It’s a lesson Democrats should learn. For years, various progressive organizations have popped up for an election cycle or two and then gone away. In the wake of 2012, when Democrats finally lost both houses of the legislature and the Governor’s Mansion, progressive set up more organizations to oppose the GOP policies and defeat them at the ballot box. 

In 2014, many Democrats expected a backlash that would give them control of at least one house of the legislature. Instead, they faced a Republican wave that cost them their US Senate seat, a state senate seat and only gave Democrats three additional seats in the house. But now is not the time to quit.

Progressives need to take a long a view and prepare for a long fight, just like Art Pope. Some Democrats hold out hope that the GOP will pass redistricting reform that will make legislative districts more competitive. That won’t likely happen. Had Republicans lost a bunch of seats in November, they may have taken up a bill out of fear that they would lose power before 2021 when the next redistricting takes place. After 2014, though, they’re feeling pretty secure with their majorities.

The GOP gerrymander is likely to keep them in control of the legislature for a long time to come. It took wave elections to dislodge Democrats when they held the chambers and it may take a wave to dislodge the GOP. Since wave elections are usually reactions against the party in power, we won’t see one with a Democrat in the White House. 

Instead of getting demoralized, though, progressive funders need to double down and keep investing in the infrastructure they’ve begun to build. They should be aggressive in exposing GOP policies that hurt working families and creating opportunities when Republicans stumble. They should be playing offense all the time and providing information and resources to potential candidates and leaders. Most of all, they need to build certainty and continuity at a time when the Democratic Party itself can provide neither. 

Art Pope bided his time for 20 years. He built policy and communications operations that served as a government-in-waiting while the GOP was out of power. While he and the GOP only had sporadic victories in the 1990s and early 2000s, they had the organization and infrastructure to exploit a year like 2010. Pope sensed an opportunity and took it. He invested heavily in campaigns and his gamble paid off. While Republicans probably would have done well in a wave like 2010, they did much better because of Pope’s infrastructure. 

At some point, progressives will have a year like 2010 to exploit. They better be ready.

http://www.politicsnc.com/following-popes-lead/