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It is obvious that the TV commercial that most sticks in Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory's craw is the one that declares him "a real danger to the middle class."

That might come as a surprise to the residents of Charlotte, where McCrory has has been mayor since 1995.

"Your commercial is wrong, is misleading, and you ought to pull it," McCrory told his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, last week during a WRAL-TV debate.

The hottest gubernatorial race in the country has in recent weeks focused on the twin issues of school vouchers and drilling.

The politics of drilling is easy. People are upset over high gas prices, and public opinion has turned sharply toward opening up the North Carolina coast for oil and natural gas exploration.

Republicans, including McCrory, were quick to seize the issue. McCrory has been having a grand time watching Perdue's ungainly waffling.

She went from being "100 percent opposed" to drilling off the North Carolina coast to saying she is willing to study it. With a straight face, she claims she hasn't changed her position.

(Their difference on drilling may also reflect their different backgrounds. McCrory is an energy executive from Charlotte, while Perdue has spent most of her adult life in the coastal town of New Bern.)

McCrory also favors school vouchers so parents can use tax money to help send their children to private schools. This has been a favorite among conservatives, who would like to see some alternatives to the public school system -- whether it's vouchers, charter schools or home schooling.

It has become so acceptable in Republican circles to bash public education that nobody batted an eye when GOP congressional candidate Hugh Webster derisively dismissed public schools as "union schools" at a rally Friday night at a Cary VFW hall.

The GOP's mixed feelings toward public education is one reason why no true conservative has been elected governor of North Carolina in recent decades. Only GOP moderates Jim Martin and Jim Holshouser, who supported public education, have won.

McCrory is no public education basher, and he has some interesting ideas on vocational education.

But in backing vouchers, McCrory has provided Perdue with a major opening.

One reason Republican former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot lost the 2000 governor's race was his support for vouchers. Democrat Mike Easley used the voucher issue to portray Vinroot as outside the mainstream.

Perdue is trying to do the same thing to McCrory, running ads claiming that McCrory's plan would deprive the public schools of at least $900 million per year. (Hence his alleged danger to the middle class.)

Not coincidentally, Saul Schorr, the same political consultant who took Vinroot apart on vouchers, is also producing Perdue's ads.

McCrory said he is being unfairly maligned and that he has proposed vouchers for only a small number of parents whose children are in failing schools.

On the voucher issue, both candidates are playing to their political base -- McCrory to conservatives and parents who send their kids to private schools, and Perdue to the N.C. Association of Educators, a teachers advocacy group that is a powerful force in the Democratic Party.

My guess is that the drilling issue is working for McCrory, while the voucher issue is helping Perdue.