Re: Five reasons Perdue beat Moore

liam — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:34:56 -0400

This is a really great roundup of the race, thanks rtb

Teachers promoted Perdue, too

bartonhayes — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:07:18 -0400

I know it's easier to talk about "attacks," but I really liked the videos that a number of North Carolina's teachers posted at YouTube. They said nothing about any opponents, only focused on the good work that Bev Perdue has done on issues related to kids and schools.

If you didn't see them, Ryan, here's a little list of them.

And I noticed too that in her speech, the first folks she thanked were North Carolina's teachers.

Five reasons Perdue beat Moore

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:59:34 -0400

Why did Beverly Perdue beat Richard Moore?

In a primary election as unusual as this one, it's dangerous to get too confident when drawing conclusions, but here are a few educated guesses about how Perdue won the primary today.

She was the frontrunner. As a two-term lieutenant governor and longtime legislator with a bevy of endorsements from big groups, Perdue was the favorite from the start and Moore never managed to knock her down.

She had good issues. Perdue had a good portfolio on both soft issues (health care, education) and hard issues (the military). Moore's issues were more national (climate change, Wall Street reform) and wonky (the line-item veto, transportation reform).

She benefited from high turnout. Perdue had strong support among women and black voters, two groups that were energized by the unusually competitive presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

She went positive. Perdue and Moore both ran nasty campaigns through the fall, but Perdue went positive just as most voters started paying attention. That endeared her to Obama's "change" voters, won points for gutsiness and made Moore's attacks look bad.

She had fewer enemies. Moore manages the state pension fund? State employees sue him. Moore crusades on Wall Street? Forbes magazine attacks his campaign funding. Moore makes his case on education? The N.C. Association of Educators attacks him.

Moore never succeeded in opening any daylight between his campaign and Perdue's. When he endorsed Obama, she endorsed Obama. When he called for raising the minimum wage, opposed coal plants at Cliffside, etc. etc., so did she.

With the wind at her back from turnout, endorsements and expectations, Perdue managed to stay in the lead throughout the primary despite early missteps.

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Re: Five reasons Perdue beat Moore

Teachers promoted Perdue, too

Five reasons Perdue beat Moore