Candidates' goals similar for the state: Moore, Perdue differ in their approach to governing N.C.

One candidate is younger and telegenic and promises a new style of government leadership.

The other is a seasoned female politician who, until recently, was surrounded by an aura of inevitability.

Their names are not Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But in North Carolina, the race between the two major Democrats running for governor is nearly as hard-fought as the presidential race.

The two candidates, State Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, want to succeed Gov. Mike Easley, who cannot run for re-election because of the two-term limit. A third Democrat, Dennis Nielsen, is also running in the primary, but Nielsen has done little campaigning, has little money and is not widely known. Four candidates are running on the Republican side in the May 6 primary.

On the surface, the resumes of Moore and Perdue look similar. They both have extensive records in state government, and they are both stellar fundraisers who have amassed huge campaign war chests.

They both have the same fundamental policy priorities: improving public schools, creating new jobs, expanding health insurance for children and helping North Carolina adapt to the 21st century economy.

They even both endorsed the same presidential candidate -- Obama -- within several weeks of each other, and are now advertising their support for him among black voters.

And they both say that their experience makes them the best qualified candidate in the race.

At least unofficially, Moore and Perdue have each been running for governor for several years or more. In less than three weeks, they and the state's voters will find out the results of a race that has been anything but tame.

"The two of them both have a lot of money, and so it probably has been more intense and gone on longer" than previous primary battles, said Gary Pearce, a veteran Democratic consultant in Raleigh. "We have a history going back 30 years, of very tough, hard-edged politics on both sides -- and more so than many, many states do."


Two political heavyweights

Despite her support of Obama, Perdue has occasionally been likened to Clinton. Like Clinton, Perdue is not a natural politician, is running mainly on her experience and had to break gender barriers to get where she is. But Perdue rejects the comparison.

"I've never thought of myself as being like anybody," Perdue said. "I am a hard worker. I'm as enthusiastic and as energetic as Barack, and maybe I'm as bright as Hillary. That's a great combination. Maybe I'm a bit of both of them."

In 1995, Perdue became the first woman to head the powerful appropriations committee in the N.C. Senate, and in 2000, she was elected as the state's first female lieutenant governor. Her supporters say that her toughness makes her qualified to be the state's first female governor.

In 22 years in public service, she has never lost an election.

Moore, meanwhile, touts his skills as a manager in difficult times. As treasurer, he has grown the state's $80 billion pension fund, including during the economic downturn of 2002 and 2003. It is now one of the nation's top-rated public pension funds. Before he was treasurer, Moore led the state's response to Hurricane Fran in 1996 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

While Perdue is often considered the candidate of the Democratic establishment, Moore sometimes sounds a little like a Republican, with all his talk about fiscal accountability, eliminating unnecessary state commissions and being "the CEO of North Carolina." But his policy proposals toe the Democratic line, and he has recently infused his message with hints of populism.

"We have connected with people on the economy," Moore said. "My resume and my skill set and my strengths are well suited for tough times."

Moore has also run TV ads attacking Perdue relentlessly, and although Perdue recently pledged not to run any more negative ads, he has no plans to stop his.

Moore's strategy has been working. Six months ago, Perdue was considered the overwhelming favorite because of her superior name recognition and her ties to key Democratic constituencies. Even as recently as March 5, one poll showed Perdue leading Moore by 27 points.

But several new polls over the past few weeks show that Moore has made it a tight race with Perdue. The Moore campaign now sounds more confident than the Perdue campaign, which has recently reversed course on key tactical decisions.

"We're winning," Moore declared at the start of a recent interview. "We have tremendous momentum."

Perdue, asked if she believes she is still the front-runner, was less assertive.

"I hope I am," she said. "I hope I am."


Advantages and obstacles

Although Moore appears to have momentum, he still has obstacles to overcome. Some of those appear on a wall in one of the offices at Moore's campaign headquarters. The wall is covered with a handwritten list of major interest groups that endorse North Carolina political candidates.

Nearly all of those groups have endorsed Perdue.

It's a stark example of Perdue's strength among large Democratic-leaning institutions, such as the N.C. Association of Educators and the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Perdue may get an additional advantage in the historically high voter turnout that is being predicted for the primary. In particular, women and black voters are expected to vote in large numbers, and both of those constituencies tend to favor Perdue.

Another factor in the final weeks, with ramifications that are less clear, is Perdue's recent decision to discontinue all of her negative ads.

Some political consultants questioned the decision, warning that it could backfire, especially because Moore has continued attacking Perdue.

Moore said that the issue is not negative versus. positive, but truth versus untruth. He has repeatedly tried to characterize Perdue as untrustworthy, and he did so again last week, saying that she has already broken her no-negativity pledge. He pointed to negative material published by two groups that are supporting Perdue.

"She's lost all credibility," Moore said. "That is the easiest thing in the world to say, ‘ Oh, that is not my doing.' As we say at home, that dog just doesn't hunt."

In response, Perdue repeated her call for positive campaigning and asked outside groups to stop running negative ads.

A lot may ride on a debate between Moore and Perdue that has been proposed for Tuesday. Both candidates have agreed to debate on that day, but they are sniping over which TV station should be the host for it.


Few policy rifts

When it comes to pure policy, Moore and Perdue have few major differences.

For example, both candidates say that their primary health-care goal is to achieve universal health insurance for children in North Carolina. Perdue's proposal goes further in several ways and would likely cost more. She wants to expand Medicaid coverage to more parents because, she argues, expanding coverage to parents is a good way to cover more children.

Moore has not called for an aggressive expansion of public health insurance for adults; rather, his plan would enact a new regulation on medical reimbursements that he says would save money, and lives, by preventing medical errors.

On the high-school dropout rate, the candidates again line up philosophically but differ in approach.

About one-third of North Carolina high-school students do not graduate within four years, and Moore has repeatedly pledged to cut that rate in half within his first term as governor. Having a benchmark, he said, is "good business management."

"If you don't have a mathematical goal, you will not be successful," he said. "If you can't measure an issue and then marshal your forces toward a specific metric, you will not be successful."

Perdue would not give a firm goal for how much she thinks she could lower the dropout rate in her first term, saying only that her ultimate goal is to have a dropout rate of 0.

"I don't know how he intends to do that," Perdue said of Moore's plan. "Surely we can lower the dropout rate, and I am working aggressively to do that as a leader of education in North Carolina."


Differences in style

What the candidates lack in policy disagreements they make up for in stylistic differences.

Moore talks about running the state similar to running a business, and says that before increasing spending on anything, he would look for ways to save taxpayers' money.

He also says that his eight years as treasurer are ideal preparation to take on the thing that most voters say is their biggest concern: economic uncertainty.

"One of the things that distinguishes him from the lieutenant governor is his management of one of the largest pension funds in the world," said Dennis Wicker, who preceded Perdue as lieutenant governor and is supporting Moore for governor. "He's had great success with that, and that experience would bode him well to manage the budget and economic affairs of the state."

Moore says the most important long-term issue is the changing global economy and North Carolina's place in it.

"The price of cotton in a state of India, or how much Shanghai issues in steel -- how does that impact North Carolina?" Moore said, adding that his understanding of such obscure economic questions is pushing him to run for governor. "If we think North Carolina has changed a lot in the last 20 years, we ain't seen nothing compared to what's going in the next 20."

But if Moore is the confident and competent executive, Perdue is the empathetic, but tough, leader who says she understands ordinary North Carolinians.

She calls herself "Bev." She addresses the electorate as "y'all." A story she has retold numerous times -- about overhearing one of Moore's ads on television while she was at home in New Bern for Easter weekend -- demonstrates the down-home vibe she tries to project.

"I was kind of getting groceries together and doing the things that a mama does when her kids come home for a holiday," Perdue said. "And I had the TV on low, and I was stunned. I heard somebody talking ugly about somebody, and I thought, ‘Oh my lord, it's me.'"

For the past eight years, Perdue has had a job, the lieutenant governor, with few statutory duties. (Moore called it a "ceremonial" position.) But it does have a bully pulpit, and Perdue touted her work as protecting the state's military bases and helping to ban tobacco from public schools.

Before that, she was one of the most influential members of the N.C. General Assembly.

Aaron Plyler, a former state senator from Monroe who was one of the Senate's lead budget writers with Perdue in the 1990s, said that Perdue knows the state as well as anyone. Plyler is a Perdue supporter who is her campaign chairman in Union County.

"I'm not by any means criticizing (Moore) in any way, but she has got the maturity in her now, with all the experience that she has," Plyler said. "And I think that Moore will make a good governor -- maybe four to eight years from now."

That argument may sound familiar to people who have followed the Obama-Clinton race. On May 6, voters in North Carolina's Democratic primary will get to decide which side of the argument they come down on -- not in one race, but in two.