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

On Monday, both major candidates for governor spoke to the 38th annual banquet of the N.C. Agribusiness Council and promised support for the agriculture industry, reports David Ingram.

“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.”

Perdue dropped two names of particular importance to rural parts of the state: the late Jim Graham, a former agriculture commissioner, and Billy Ray Hall of the N.C. Rural Center.

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.

A GlaxoSmithKline executive is hosting a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory on the Research Triangle campus of the pharmaceutical giant.

Stephen Stefano, the senior vice president for managed markets and neurohealth, sent out a letter urging people to attend the event at the corporate facility on Aug. 13, Rob Christensen reports.

The letter was sent to at least some vendors who do work with GlaxoSmithKline.

"As mayor, Pat has been a national leader on economic, transportation and public safety issues," Stefano writes. "As a former Duke Energy executive, he understands the importance of the business climate to a vibrant North Carolina."

Update: McCrory spokeswoman Amy Auth said that the letter is incorrect, and the fundraiser will be held at another location -- not on the GSK campus.

"It was sent prematurely and contained an error," she said.

She said that the letter was sent to a broad range of Triangle residents, not just vendors. 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's political action committee has received $848,615 in the last three years.

The Leadership Circle PAC is separate from Dole's campaign committee, so it can receive bigger contributions from donors. As a recent report and database from NPR's Marketplace shows, leadership PACs like it are booming.

Many of Dole's contributors are familiar faces.

Between December of 2004 and December of 2007, her leadership PAC received $20,000 from lieutenant governor candidate Robert Pittenger and his wife, Suzanne; $16,750 from former gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham and his wife, Shari; and $10,000 from SAS co-founder Jim Goodnight.

Other donations came from Raleigh lawyer Kieran Shanahan, CaptiveAire owner Bob Luddy, her husband Bob, Luther Hodges Jr., billionaire resort builder Kirk Kerkorian, Raleigh developer John Kane, and former Dole running mate Jack Kemp.

The Leadership Circle PAC also received money from other PACs, including the Progress Energy PAC, Wachovia Employees Good Government Fund, the N.C. Farm Bureau, and PACs for R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard Tobacco Co., Duke Energy and Federal Express.

Walter Dalton received $1.5 million in contributions by the end of June.

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor received $255,305 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, according to his most recent campaign finance report.

Major donors included Crandall Bowles, Greensboro executive Joseph Bryan Jr., Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Franklin Street Partners executive Robert Eubanks, Capstrat CEO Ken Eudy and developer Mack Pearsall. 

He also received contributions from political action committees such as the Bank of America PAC, the Baxter Healthcare PAC, the N.C. Home Builders Association, DominionPAC, the N.C. Restaurant Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Wal-Mart's PAC and the N.C. Trucking Association.

He also spent $637,602 in the second quarter, leaving him with $177,357 in cash on hand.

Pat McCrory is doing well by his former employer.

The Republican gubernatorial nominee has raised $74,015 from executives and employees of Duke Energy so far this campaign season — roughly 3 percent of his total contributions.

Top donors include President Ellen Ruff and executives David Hauser, Keith Trent and James Turner, who have given $8,000; Cincinnati-based executive Marc Manly and Charlotte executive Christopher Rolfe, who gave $6,000; and vice presidents J. Kinney and Joseph Harwood, who gave $4,000.

Ruff was also one of the headliners at McCrory's first major fundraiser in February.

In all, McCrory has received donations from 30 different Duke employees, including residents of Raleigh, Charlotte, Concord and Davidson, as well as some from Alexandria, Va.; Lake Wylie, S.C.; and Washington, D.C.

Not all are executives. Peter Loper of Charlotte, who gave $1,000, lists his occupation as physician, while William Patterson of Charlotte, who gave $565, is listed as an employee. Duke's lobbyist, Brian Vanderbloemen, and chief communications officer, Cathy Roche, are also among the donors.

In addition, McCrory received $4,000 from the Duke Energy PAC.

He resigned from the electric utility, where he had worked since 1978, after announcing his campaign for governor in mid-January.

The N.C. Military Foundation runs on a tight budget.

The nonprofit started by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue in 2006 to promote defense spending in North Carolina spent $140,000 less than it received its first year in operation, according to federal tax forms.

Five North Carolina companies — Wachovia, Progress Energy, Duke Energy and Charlotte defense contractors General Dynamics and Parsons Corp. Commercial Technology Group — each pledged $100,000 to fund the group its first year, and it earned another $3,274 in interest on that money.

But during that time it spent only $363,914, including $212,000 for consultants, $72,718 for the salary of executive director Will Austin, $7,055 on travel, $6,111 on conferences, $3,283 for marketing and $1,131 for a Toshiba laptop.

Austin, the organization's sole full-time employee, works out of a small office on Hargett Street in Raleigh. He has a part-time administrative assistant.

He told Dome the board of directors recently authorized him to hire a deputy director, but the nonprofit will continue to use consultants on its various projects.

"We're lean on staff and infrastructure," he said. "We spend our money on consultants."

Pat McCrory says state Democrats are on a "fishing expedition."

The Republican gubernatorial nominee said today that the N.C. Democratic Party has filed a public records request for correspondence between the mayor, the city manager and his staff and three Charlotte businesses for the past 12 years.

In a press release sent out shortly before 5 p.m., the McCrory campaign says that City Attorney Mac McCarley estimated the request would cost "more than $100,000" and take "up to a thousand hours" of work to complete.

"I am disgusted by this fishing expedition being conducted by the North Carolina Democratic Party with the blessing of Beverly Perdue," McCrory said in a statement, calling it "dirty tricks."

Perdue spokesman David Kochman said they were aware of the records request and had no problem with it.

"One of the reasons we have campaigns is for voters to learn about candidates and the work they've done," he said. "I would hope that the mayor has nothing to hide. If that's the case, there shouldn't be any problem sharing more information about his record."

On the issue of cost, Kochman said that it's standard for a government body to charge reasonable costs to comply with a records request.

Update: McCrory spokeswoman Amy Auth said that the request was for correspondence related to two Charlotte-based companies, Bank of America and Duke Energy — where McCrory formerly worked — and U.S. Airways, which has a hub in Charlotte's airport.

She said he has nothing to hide.

"He will gladly compare his record to the rest of state leadership," she said.

Second Update: In its two requests, the Democratic Party offered to pay to defray the cost of copies up to $200, for a total of $400.

Third Update: McCarley, the city attorney, said this would be the biggest public records request in recent memory, topping a $100,000-plus request from an unsuccessful bidder on a city contract and a citizen who supported the unsuccessful effort to repeal the sales tax.

He said that the charge to the Democratic Party would probably be between $200 and $1,000 for the cost of copies, with the $100,000 figure referring to the cost of staff time, which can't be recouped. He said it will probably take "most of the summer" to comply.

Some of North Carolina's largest corporations have pulled their support of N.C. FREE.

The decisions followed a dispute over the mission of the influential Raleigh-based group, which is best known for its analysis of state election trends. In recent years, it has also tried to raise money and recruit pro-business candidates.

John Davis, the president of N.C. FREE, said the effort to elect more business leaders represents a return to the group's mission in the 1980s, but the effort has alienated some Democrats, who have majorities in the state House and Senate, as well as lobbyists and large companies.

The companies are concerned that the campaign efforts could become partisan, and they don't want to alienate powerful incument Democrats.

Spokesmen for Bank of America, Duke Energy and Wachovia confirmed Thursday that their companies have either canceled or not renewed their memberships. At least a dozen companies have left N.C. FREE in recent months. (Char-O)