Governor hopefuls sow support from farmers

Beverly Perdue claims membership in North Carolina's farming community. Pat McCrory doesn't.

Both major candidates for governor spoke last week to the 38th annual banquet of the N.C. Agribusiness Council and promised support for the agriculture industry.

"I'm not going to pretend I'm one of you, because I'm not, and neither is my opponent," said McCrory, a Republican and mayor of Charlotte. But, he added, he will listen to the industry if he's governor and work with it because its workers "feed me at least three times a day."

Perdue, a Democrat and lieutenant governor, said she represented farmers in the New Bern area while in the legislature and sat on agriculture committees.

"I actually consider myself part of the agriculture community in North Carolina," she said. "I'm not a Johnny-come-lately to rural North Carolina, or to agriculture and agribusiness."

Neither candidate has worked in agriculture. McCrory spent 29 years with Charlotte-based Duke Energy -- which sponsored three tables at Monday's banquet -- while Perdue worked in education and health-care administration.

Libertarian candidate Mike Munger did not attend the banquet. He is a political scientist, though he does have ties to agribusiness through his sale of timber from land in Chatham County.

McCrory slams unions

Meanwhile, there were a few more points of interest from last week's debate between Perdue and McCrory.

McCrory took aim at unions, while Perdue used one of McCrory's old debates against him.

McCrory made several references to labor unions that left no doubt of a rift between him and a group representing state workers.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina endorsed Perdue in late July.

The Service Employees International Union, which is affiliated with SEANC, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to a 527 group that is running ads attacking McCrory's record.

McCrory complained about the ads twice during the debate, saying they were taking his remarks out of context and were funded by "national Washington group and labor unions and other groups from throughout the country."

"The 30-second TV ads, which now attack me, by this Washington labor group are saying that I'm opposed to free two-year college tuition, and therefore I'm against students, I'm against kids," he added later.

After Perdue mentioned her endorsements by law enforcement groups, McCrory took aim at them as well.

"This has nothing to do with endorsements by quasi-labor unions," he said.

Perdue took a shot at McCrory for something he said during an April 10 debate in the Republican primary.

"My opponent says that children's health care insurance sends the wrong signal," she said. "I don't understand that."

At the earlier debate, McCrory said government health care was encouraging teenagers to get pregnant "in a way" because "they know they're going to get free medical care for their children."

"We're sending the wrong signals by our government programs right now," he said during the Republican debate.

But during last week's debate, McCrory said he did not know what Perdue was talking about.

"I don't know where she got that quote from, and I look forward to seeing it some day, and I'm sure it's out of context like many of the negative ads ... from national Washington groups and labor unions," he said.

Reminded by a reporter afterward, McCrory said he was talking about preventive measures for teen pregnancies in the earlier quote, noting that he has heard from kids he has mentored that they see pregnancy as "a way out."

"I in no way meant that I would want to take away health insurance from children," he said.

Dole gets a rave review

Working Mother magazine has named U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole one of the "Best of Congress."

In its annual look at "passionate legislators who champion families," the magazine notes that Dole has 11 working mothers on her staff of 45 and offers good perks.

"Employees' hours and work-from-home options are flexible in extenuating circumstances," the magazine wrote. "For example, when one staffer's husband was sick, she was encouraged to use a flexible schedule to balance family and work obligations, and when another employee had a difficult pregnancy confining her to bed rest, her home was set up so she could work remotely."

On policy issues, the magazine notes that Dole has worked to extend the Family and Medical Leave Act to military families and pushed "a number of antihunger and nutrition initiatives."