Beverly Perdue made a play for the media.

Talking about the economy at an N.C. Bar Association debate today, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee went over the heads of the lawyers and judges and gave a nod to the reporters in the back row. 

"This morning's papers talked about the unemployment rate continuing to go up in North Carolina," she said. "We all know that and see that. Even the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer are having employment layoffs." 

Appropriately enough, Perdue then talked about worker retraining programs. For former reporters, those usually involve several years at a law school.

Gov. Mike Easley wants a judge to throw out a public records lawsuit.

In a motion filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Easley's attorneys argued that the N&O, the Charlotte Observer and nine other news organizations are improperly asking a judge to make sweeping declarations about policies and behavior.

Hugh Stevens, an attorney for the newspapers, said in a statement that the governor's complaint argues that the courts are virtually powerless to enforce the public records law.

"It appears that the governor is taking the position that if he has a public record and refuses to permit its inspection and copying, the courts can act; otherwise, he can ignore the public records law with impunity, even to the extent of destroying public records," Stevens wrote.

The filing Tuesday means the case is likely headed to a courtroom. (N&O)

The Charlotte Observer editorial board has endorsed Barack Obama.

In an unsigned editorial this morning, the sister paper of the N&O says that it is troubled by Hillary Clinton's "tendency to tell voters what they want to hear," while Obama is "one of the most powerful, effective speakers to seek the presidency in years."

Sen. Obama is a man of uncommon intelligence. He's a graduate of Columbia University with a law degree from Harvard, where he was editor of the law review. He bypassed lucrative job opportunities to become a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor Chicago neighborhoods plagued with crime and joblessness.

The newspaper says Obama has "made missteps" in his campaign, but shown an "ability to learn."

The N&O will not endorse in the Democratic primary, according to public editor Ted Vaden. 

Richard Moore told the Charlotte Observer he was proud of his ads.

The Charlotte Observer's Jack Betts has the story:

Treasurer Moore has been pressing Perdue hard with tough, pointed ads and campaign rhetoric, but Moore doesn’t regard his negative ads as anything to be ashamed of. In an interview with the Observer’s editorial board earlier this week, Moore was asked about those ads and the tone of his campaign. He responded, "I'm proud of my campaign."

Update: Moore also told the Winston-Salem Journal recently that he didn't think his ads were "particularly dirty."

"What is negative? Everything that we have put on the air is based in fact," he told the paper.

Gov. Mike Easley said today that he has instructed his press office and other state government spokespeople to cooperate better with news media outlets to provide information to the public.

A controversy over the deletion of government e-mail records at his office's behest is distracting his administration from its final year of work, Easley said at an informal meeting this afternoon with the executive director of the N.C. Press Association and the top editors of The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and The Carolina Journal.

"I've got basically nine months left in office," Easley said. "We've done a lot of good, but there's a lot more to be done. I want every day to count. I do not want to be distracted with pettiness."

Easley organized the meeting in response to criticism of his administration's handling of requests for information about the state's beleaguered mental health system, including the deletion of staff e-mails that might have been public record.

More after the jump.

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Both Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore issued low-key endorsements for Barack Obama.

In both cases, the Democratic gubernatorial candidates spoke with reporters for the Charlotte Observer, rather than, say, sending a press release to the entire press corps.

On the hierarchy of endorsements, that makes them pretty low key.

Moore went a little further than Perdue, with his wife, Noel, giving a donation as well. 

Farther up the hierarchy: Sending a targeted mailing to certain regions or demographic groups, sending a wider mailing, holding a press conference to announce an endorsement and stumping for the candidate.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt and then U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford, for example, held a press conference to announce their support for Al Gore in the 1988 primary. 

But neither was up for election. Both Perdue and Moore are trying to thread the needle by gaining the benefits of endorsing Obama without drawing the ire of Hillary Clinton supporters.

Bob Orr really blogs.

In a segment on NBC 17's new "At Issue" program Sunday, your Dome correspondent and the Charlotte Observer's Mark Johnson discussed political blogs run by the gubernatorial campaigns.

Regularly updated features on the Web sites of Richard Moore and Fred Smith just look like blogs, we said, while "More from Orr" really reads like his personal blog.

We noted that there is a risk that Orr could offend voters (as when he referred to a black teacher as "articulate" and "attractive"), it's also more likely to be seen as authentic. (Laura Leslie agrees.)

On his blog last night, Orr wrote that he has imposed a "2 glasses of wine" rule and no late-night blogging. (Weren't those the rules for Gremlins?)

"I confess, however, to have violated that rule once but fortunately woke up at 5:30 a.m. and edited the entry before anyone actually read it," he writes.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina is running ads against Richard Moore.

The group, which represents 55,000 state workers, ran a full-page ad in the News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer and the Asheville Citizen-Times today.

"State employees to Treasurer Richard Moore: Where are our pension fund documents?" the ad reads. It is signed by all 12 members of the executive committee.

The ad references a recent fight that SEANC has had with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate over a public records request. The group has also filed a lawsuit against Moore's office.

Erica Baldwin, SEANC's assistant director of communications, said that it was the first time in recent memory that the group had taken out such a large ad, but she said it has nothing to do with the ongoing Democratic gubernatorial primary.

"It's not a political statement at all, but a statement about public accountability," she said.

A full-page ad in the front section of the N&O on a Wednesday for a political organization would cost around $7,800, according to this rate card. It could be as much as $10,900 for the Asheville Citizen-Times, according to this rate card. A full-page ad in the Charlotte Observer would cost from $9,855 to $37,125. 

Amanda Martin, general counsel for the N.C. Press Association, said it was an unusual move.

"I have never known of a public records requester bolstering his or her request by an ad in the newspaper or anywhere else," she said.

Update: A spokeswoman for the treasurer's office said in a statement that the ad is incorrect.

"We are disappointed by this move by SEANC, as the Department of State Treasurer has followed both the spirit and the letter of the law in providing documents requested by SEANC," said Sara Lang.

Fred Smith spent $1.5 million in 2007.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate's biggest expense was $532,992 to a company run by his chief of staff, Jonathan Hill, for staff salaries and grassroots organizing.

Smith also spent $359,915 to SouthData, a Mount Airy-based printing company that published Smith's autobiography, "A Little Extra Effort," and mailed copies to thousands of North Carolinians.

Hill said that the book was one part of a statewide effort to build name recognition. The other part was a series of barbecues held in all 100 counties.

"We have a long-term plan and we're running that plan," said Hill. "It was to have a conservation with the people across the whole state."

As previously reported, Smith spent more than $90,000 on barbecue alone. He also spent $13,745 on facility rental for the events.

He also paid country singer Lee Greenwood $100,000, spent $176,374 to the producers of his TV ads, paid political consultant Karen Rotterman $45,000 and spent $12,538 on a half-page ad in the Charlotte Observer.

The editorial board of the Charlotte Observer thinks the demographics favor Pat McCrory.

In an unsigned editorial, the board writes that the longtime Charlotte mayor could face an uphill climb because "social and fiscal hyper-conservatives" have dominated the Republican gubernatorial primary in the past.

But it says his background as a "successful big city mayor" could help, based on the numbers from the 2004 GOP primary, when 364,000 votes were cast.

About 107,000 of the votes came from big urban counties: Forsyth (Winston-Salem), Guilford (Greensboro), Mecklenburg (Charlotte) and Wake (Raleigh). Those urban voters might like a successful mayor.

Another 86,000 of the '04 votes came from the dozen counties in the Charlotte Regional Partnership. All of them are within Charlotte's newspaper and television markets, so Mr. McCrory's name is already familiar to many voters there.

In the end, the board writes that it doesn't think he'll run, though.