Democrats have indy campaign in gov's race, too

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, whose campaign for governor has asked for contributions from political action committees to help him win the governorship, is making sure that voters know that Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue has done the same -- and that she also benefits from a well-financed independent political campaign.
What's more, the McCrory campaign points out that the independent campaign supporting Perdue hasn't disclosed its finances and is running a negative ad -- an obvious reference to her decision late in the Democratic primary to quit running negative ads in her fight against State Treasurer Richard Moore.

McCrory campaign consultant Jack Hawke said Thursday, "Beverly Perdue promised a positive campaign, but the first advertisement of the general election is a negative attack on Pat McCrory from a group of her supporters. What happened to ‘Positive Bev?’

“If Perdue truly practices what she preaches, she will call on her support group to immediately remove negative television advertising," Hawke said. Here's a link to his statement:

The McCrory campaign has emphasized cleaning up corruption in Raleigh and building a state government more responsive to the people and less reliant on special interests. But that message was clouded when the Republican Governors Association created an independent campaign committee to support McCrory and amassed a treasury of more than $380,000 in unregulated campaign donations, thanks to a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that did away with North Carolina's $4,000 limit on contributions. Those independent campaigns cannot by law coordinate with political candidates' campaigns, and the McCrory campaign didn't know about it until a reporter asked.

Scott Falmlen, a Democratic campaign consultant working with the Democrats independent cmapaign, said the new ads by the Alliance for North Carolina are an issue advocacy campaign "urging citizens to tell Pat McCrory that 'North Carolina needs higher wages, free tuition at community colleges and no more perks for politicians.'"

Here's a link to the Web site for new ad: