Senate appointees peppered with Pope people

One of the rites that always accompanies the close of the legislative session is the passage of a bill that includes the appointments of the Senate President Pro Tem and the House Speaker to various boards and commissions. We’ve yet to see the list of names from Rep. Thom Tillis, but the list for Sen. Phil Berger is out and, not surprisingly, it includes several residents of the Art Pope Empire.

Here are few that show up in a quick perusal of the list:

-Locke Foundation Executive Vice President, Kory Swanson: N.C. Seafood Industrial Park Authority
-Locke Foundation Vice President for Outreach, Becki Gray: Board of Trustees of the N.C. Museum of Art
-Locke Foundation alum and all-purpose right-wing commentator, Rick Martinez: Board of Trustees of the UNC Center for Public Television
-Locke Foundation staffer and Director of the North Carolina Education Alliance, Lyndalyn Kakadelis: North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission (a program the Republican budget defunds) 
-All-purpose Pope and Republican attorney and head of the N.C. Property Rights Coalition, Kieran Shanahan: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund Board of Trustees  
-Former state Auditor and current head of the Pope-funded Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Les Merritt: State Ethics Commission
-There’s also a Christine Woodhouse of Wake County (which appears to be the name of the spouse of Dallas Woodhouse of Americans for the Prosperous), who is appointed to the N.C. Board of Science and Technology. (We’re sure Dallas or someone else will correct us if this is a different Christine Woodhouse.) 

Bottom line: An awful lot of people who spend a lot of time disparaging government sure do seem to want to be a part of it.