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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Ferrel Guillory, December 11, 1973. Interview A-0123. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Various influences on North Carolina politics

Guillory ranks the influence of various North Carolina lobbies: banks are the most powerful, then textiles. Tobacco does not have a great deal of sway despite the crop's importance, and the insurance industry has a mixed record.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Ferrel Guillory, December 11, 1973. Interview A-0123. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

JACK BASS:
What are the most powerful lobbies in the state?
FERREL GUILLORY:
I think the banks are undoubtedly the most powerful. Senator Gordon Allen said the other day that in the '73 session there was a bill to put collision coverage in a plan to shift from the assigned risk plan to what they call a facility plan. It was a distinction between way how to handle high risk drivers the details are unimportant. Well, anyway the banks oppose putting collision under the thing because the banks run a lot of these side firms that have collision. Well, anyway, something Gordon Allen said that over one week-end, from Fri. when the session was over to Monday night when it was 39 votes out of 50 . . . .. . .. . . just cut it out. That's not bad.
JACK BASS:
Who would be number two?
FERREL GUILLORY:
Well, I don't know if the banks are number one but they're pretty high up there. Number two, I don't know. Textile people keep a low profile but the state takes care of it as much as it can.
JACK BASS:
How about tobacco people?
FERREL GUILLORY:
I don't know. In my experience they haven't been overpowering at all. Bob Scott got the tobacco tax through and the legislature has withstood pressure to take it off. That's the only thing in my experience. They are obviously aren't going to do anything to endanger the tobacco interests and they all run around with little tobacco leaves in their ties saying that I say support cancer and all that kind of stuff. But they aren't going to do any of that. Textiles, you remember when I was telling you about when Holshouser meeting with those southern chairmen when they went up to Wash. and Clark Reid went up there? He said in the interview I had with him the other day that that was one of the main things that he was involved in and was assuring that federal policy took care of the tobacco growers and textiles. You know the import fight they had in the early days
JACK BASS:
I presume the electric utilties is a powerful lobby, insurance industry.
FERREL GUILLORY:
No, the insurance industry I wouldn't say. Insurance industries is sort of mixed. The attorneys there have been able to fight the insurance people off. The insurance people have been the ones supporting the nofault insurance thing. But they haven't gotten it passed. And if they were as powerful as the banks or utilities it certainly would have gotten passed. I don't see a lot of activity in the utilities in the general assembly but I think it's clear that the utilities have a lot of force in other agencies of the state.