Governor candidates debate in cyberspace

The two Democratic gubernatorial candidates met online for a debate Monday.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore answered questions from readers of the three-year-old liberal Web site BlueNC.com for an hour.

The debate was a first in North Carolina politics, though it broke little ground on the issues in the highly competitive race for the Democratic nomination.

In separate discussion threads, both candidates endorsed broadcasting meetings of the General Assembly and all legislative committee over the Internet. That idea has also been endorsed by Republican candidate Bill Graham and the state chapter of the NAACP.

"Budget hearings should be public and they should be broadcast on the Web using streaming video, and changes to the budget should be made out in the open, not in some back room," Moore wrote.

In response to a similar question, Perdue also noted her plan to put state contracts and grants online for the public to read.

"As you can see from what we are doing tonight, technology can change the way we do politics and government in North Carolina," she wrote.

The candidates differed on the state lottery.

Perdue, who cast the deciding vote as lieutenant governor for the lottery, said that the state "must remain vigilant" to ensure that lottery money pays for education, saying she would work for a constitutional amendment to guarantee that.

Moore said he did not support the lottery. "It overpromised and undelivered," he wrote. "As far as changes, that's a tough question. I'll tell you one thing I would not support is increased advertising."

At one point, a reader asked Perdue if she would agree to a "more positive approach" to campaigning.

"I agree that there is too much negative campaigning, but would like to point out that the record shows that Richard Moore's campaign launched the first negative ad in this campaign," she wrote.

Detailed statistics were not immediately available, but the site's moderators said that they had about 8,000 page views Monday.