Rivals rev up race for top N.C. job

The governor's primary is in 2008, but Democrats Moore and Perdue are raising cash and hiring staff

The calendar may read 2006, but Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore are behaving as if it were 2008.

That's when both hope to become the Democratic nominee to be North Carolina's next governor.

In recent days, Perdue and Moore have traded elbows over who first pushed for various environmental initiatives and for tax breaks for the working poor. Both have been building political organizations for a primary contest still 17 months away -- from lining up supporters to bringing in hired political guns. Both are already raising money.

Neither Moore nor Perdue, both rising stars in the Democratic Party, has announced his or her candidacy to succeed Gov. Mike Easley, who is not eligible to seek a third term in 2008.

But neither is being coy; both of them clearly would like to lead the nation's 10th largest state. And both say their extensive background in political office in Raleigh has seasoned them for the top job.

"My work in the General Assembly and as lieutenant governor shows that I know how to get things done," Perdue said in an interview this month.

To which Moore counters, "I have something that no one else who is actively considering being governor now has. I have 11 years of executive branch, managerial experience at a very high level."

Many expect a Perdue-Moore primary race to be tough, expensive and potentially divisive. The winner will face one of several Republicans, including state Sen. Fred Smith of Clayton and Salisbury attorney Bill Graham, who are looking to end the 16-year run of Democratic governors in North Carolina.

Their backgrounds

Perdue, 59, is the early leader in the Democratic polls, although several surveys suggest that most voters have yet to focus on the contest.

A two-term lieutenant governor, Perdue is attempting to become North Carolina's first female governor. The daughter of a Virginia coal mine owner, she earned a doctorate in geriatric care and battled her way up in politics starting as a state legislator from New Bern before rising to lieutenant governor. She now lives in Chapel Hill.

She is the favorite of much of the Democratic establishment and is likely to receive strong backing from teachers, trial attorneys, women and many party activists.

Moore, 46, a two-term state treasurer and former head of the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, appears to have stronger ties to business. He is more visible nationally and is running as less of an insider candidate.

An attorney with an advanced degree from the London School of Economics, Moore is from a prominent Granville County family. His grandfather, Frank Hancock, was a well-known congressman. Moore has the personal wealth, if he chooses, to easily outspend Perdue in the primary; his wife is the granddaughter of the founder of a privately held Texas grocery store chain with 60,000 employees and $12.4 billion in revenue last year, according to Forbes magazine.

Moore argues that traditional political organizations have less clout than they once did, suggesting that Perdue does not have as large an edge as some think.

"How you marshall people and build coalitions has changed dramatically in this state," he said.

Both have head start

Perdue and Moore already have been laying the groundwork for gubernatorial bids for two years.

The jockeying become evident earlier this month.

When Moore attended a news conference to push for tax relief for the working poor by providing earned-income tax credits, Perdue released a statement that she had long supported such legislation.