INSTITUTE INDEX: The fight for North Carolina's future continues

Amount multimillionaire conservative donor Art Pope, his immediate family, and his company, Variety Wholesalers, contributed to North Carolina state politics in the 2010 election, helping Republicans win control of both legislative chambers for the first time since Reconstruction: at least $758,000

Amount Pope, his family, and his corporate treasury spent in North Carolina's 2012 election cycle, when Republicans secured veto-proof supermajorities in both legislative chambers: $668,000

Amount spent in the 2012 election cycle by political advocacy groups affiliated with Pope: $1.4 million

Amount the Pope family spent on campaign contributions in the 2012 cycle to elect Pat McCrory as the state's first Republican governor in 20 years: $20,000

Date on which McCrory appointed Art Pope to serve as his budget director: 12/20/2012

Number of teaching positions lost under the recently approved state budget: 5,200

Level to which lawmakers, with McCrory's support, voted last year to cut maximum weekly unemployment benefits, from more than $500: $350

Number of jobless North Carolina workers who were eligible for extended federal unemployment benefits but lost them due to changes state lawmakers made to the program: 170,000

Number of low-income North Carolina adults who lost out on health care coverage because the legislature and McCrory decided to reject Medicaid expansion under Obamacare: 500,000

Number of low-wage North Carolina workers affected when state lawmakers voted to end the state's Earned Income Tax Credit, which was designed as an anti-poverty tool: 907,000

Percent of North Carolina taxpayers who will experience an overall tax increase due to the current legislature's decision to cut income taxes while imposing taxes on services and increasing some taxes on sales: 80

Average amount by which North Carolina millionaires will benefit from those same tax changes: $10,000

Before signing into law a bill that further restricts women's access to abortion in North Carolina, number of abortion restrictions McCrory had said he would sign: 0

Percent more likely that African Americans are to lack the kinds of photo ID North Carolina voters will soon be required to show in order to vote because of a law passed last year: 50

After the legislature voted to end public financing for judicial campaigns at the urging of Pope, number of options judicial candidates now have for running a campaign without relying on private contributions: 0

Date on which the North Carolina state chapter of the NAACP held the first Moral Monday protest against the legislature's and administration's extremist agenda: 4/29/2013

Total number of people who were arrested for committing nonviolent civil disobedience during the weekly protests after state leaders rejected the local district attorney's proposal to issue citations instead: 924

Date on which the NAACP launched an informational picket campaign outside Pope-owned discount retail stores, which he locates in lower-income communities with large African-American populations, in order to let customers know how he spends their money: 12/2/2013

Number of states from which activists came to North Carolina recently to learn how to organize Moral Monday-type protests back home: 12

Date on which North Carolina's Moral Monday movement is planning to hold a mass march on the state capital of Raleigh, continuing the fight in a legislative election year: 2/8/2014

(Click on figure to go to source.)