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Sunday Roundup
posted at 2008-04-13 12:08 | Last modified 2008-04-13 12:25
Dem gubernatorial contender Bev Perdue wasted no time cashing in on her new positive ad strategy. E-mails and robocalls touting her decision started going out by midday Friday, according to a legislative staffer whose family got one of each.
Dome’s Ryan Teague Beckwith has the call script, plus – bonus! – a YouTube Hall-of-Shame featuring both sides’ nasty ads.
Greensboro’s Mark Binker and I stopped by NBC-17’s At Issue this week to talk about Perdue’s white flag. If you missed it, it’s here.
Perdue’s rival Richard Moore defended his campaign strategy to Jack Betts Thursday, but otherwise didn’t say much about it. Maybe he’s letting the poll numbers do the talking for him.
- Earlier last week, SurveyUSA showed Perdue and Moore in a dead heat.
- Friday, the conservative Civitas released poll numbers giving Moore a one-point lead. That’s obviously within the margin of error, but it’s still a big shift in the overall numbers.
- PPP’s Tom Jensen wonders how much sampling might have to do with the difference between these two polls and PPP's latest tracker.
On the other side...
Civitas’s Republican numbers showed Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory opening up a statistically significant nine-point lead over his closest competitor, Fred Smith. Survey USA had McCrory ahead by nineteen.
Meantime, McCrory broke from the trail yesterday to visit the groundbreaking for NC’s first Ikea store in University City. Char-O’s Jen Aronoff says the Mayor wants a “Poang” armchair. In red, of course.
"Bitter" pill
Winston Salem’s James Romoser says Barack Obama “regrets” his controversial remarks about embittered Midwesterners. If you want to know how the whole thing got started, read this post by the Huffington Post’s Mayhill Fowler.
Of course, the Clinton campaign immediately launched a counter-offensive with a Saturday press call and an “open letter from North Carolinians” (well, 47 of them, anyway) decrying Obama’s comment.
The AP’s Mike Baker reports the Clinton campaign made a little hay off the issue at Bill Clinton’s whistle-stop in Wilson yesterday, too.
More damage control
The SoPines Pilot’s Matthew Moriarty reports Moore Republican Joe Boylan was charged with DWI after crashing his car in Cameron Thurs night. Boylan wasn’t seriously hurt, but his primary chances might be. There’s a little more detail and Boylan's e-mail response at the Fay-O.
Winston-Salem's Paul O'Connor says NC Congressman Patrick McHenry’s Green Zone Video scandal might just be his Macaca moment.
The N&O’s Ben Niolet and Charlotte’s Mark Johnson teamed up for a look at how Gov. Mike Easley’s famously detached style may not be helping him deal with a passel of controversies threatening to mar his final year in the mansion.
- The N&O’s Rob Christensen adds that second-term meltdowns seem to be a common affliction of the executive branch.
- Charlotte’s Jack Betts gives Easley mixed marks for trying to improve the situation.
