Worried about education? Chances are, you favor Democrat Beverly Perdue for governor.

Concerned about immigration? Than it's likely that you prefer Republican Pat McCrory for governor.

Those are some of the findings of the latest survey by Public Policy Polling. The firm surveyed 1,060 likely voters from Sept. 17-19. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.

The survey found that Perdue and McCrory continue to be in a very close race.

When PPP asked those surveyed about issues, it found that the economy and jobs was at the top of the list of concerns, with the war in Iraq and moral and family values lagging far behind. The results:

Economy and jobs: 58 percent

War in Iraq: 11 percent

Moral and family values: 10 percent

Taxes: 6 percent

Education: 5 percent

Health care: 4 percent

Immigration: 4 percent

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

North Carolinians are not happy about where the country is heading, according to the latest poll by Elon University.

Elon found that 81 percent of respondants believe the United States is heading in the wrong direction. Elon surveyed 411 North Carolina residents on Sept. 15-18. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

The poll also found that the economy, health care, the war in Iraq and taxes were among the top concerns of North Carolina residents.

Kay Hagan joined Michelle Obama on the campaign trail today.

The Democratic Senate candidate joined the wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama at a rally at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro this afternoon.

The Greensboro News & Record reports that Hagan addressed the crowd before Obama, talking about pay equity and access to health care.

Obama then thanked Hagan.

"We can't forget what's going on in these local races because Barack is going to need some help when he gets to the White House," she said, according to the paper.

The appearance was a strong sign that the Hagan campaign considers it beneficial to tie itself more closely to Obama in the fall presidential campaign. 

CHARLOTTE - On a stage that resembled a talk show set, Michelle Obama listened this morning to a handful of North Carolina women tell stories about their personal economic struggles.

"I told the ladies this is like 'The View,'" Obama told about 400 people at Charlotte's McGlohan Theater.

It was the second economic roundtable in as many days for Barack Obama's wife, reports Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer.

Michelle Obama shared the stage with women who told their stories: A grandmother forced to get a job when her retirement dollars didn't stretch. A teacher whose illness bars her from most health insurance plans. A business woman whose husband was laid off and who can't sleep for worry about her own family and her aging parents.

Obama nodded in empathy and offered her husband's prescriptions for helping people like those around her through tax cuts, universal health care and more access to education.

"Folks up here aren't asking for yachts and cruises," she said. "They're not asking for a third house ... Some folks are trying to keep the one."

Many in the audience left impressed.

"It was awesome, and so real," said Tia Capers, a 37-year-old banker from Cornelius. "Stories that everybody could relate to. It was almost like talking to your next-door neighbors."

Elizabeth Edwards says she is focusing on her children and important issues such as health care reform.

In an interview this week with the Detrit Free Press, Edwards said she is going through "an ongoing process of finding your feet again" following her husband's admission that he had an extramarital affair.

"There's a lot of adjustment to make," Elizabeth Edwards told the newspaper. "When you mention trust, that's probably the most difficult hurdle."

When the paper asked Edwards if she had forgiven her husband, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards responded, "I don't want to feed the monster, if you don't mind."

But she was willing to discuss her concerns about health care. Edwards is speaking to a congressional panel this morning about the issue.

"I really worry as we talk about a universal health system, we talk about something that becomes cheaper and cheaper," she told the newspaper. "They are willing to do the kidney transplant when it's necessary. But that's a dollar we might not have to spend if someone had gotten to do their diabetes testing and gotten treatment earlier."

Beverly Perdue is striking back at "Status Quo Bev."

In a speech at a gubernatorial forum on ethics this morning in Raleigh, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate took aim at a nickname given to her in ads by the Republican Governors Association.

Stressing that her campaign was about "change," Perdue said she was against "the status quo" twice.

"I've spent my entire life trying to make things better and fighting the status quo," she said.

Later she said that she was "committed to changing the status quo."

As a two-term lieutenant governor with ties to Gov. Mike Easley, Perdue has faced charges from Republican Pat McCrory and his allies that she is to blame for problems in Raleigh. She has countered by arguing that she was outside the inner circle.

In her speech today, she cited three examples: 1) Running for office as a woman in Eastern North Carolina, 2) "taking on tobacco" as a health care leader, and 3) campaigning for children's health insurance and teacher salaries.

State Sen. Bill Purcell attacked John McCain's health care plan today.

At a press conference at the N.C. Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh this morning, the Laurinburg Democrat argued that McCain's proposals would hurt the existing system of employer-provided health insurance.

A retired pediatrician and longtime state senator, Purcell said that by encouraging individuals and families to buy their own insurance on the open market, McCain's plan would let employers off the hook for providing it.

He also argued that individuals would not be able to negotiate as good a deal as corporations with large blocs of employees can.

"I don't believe the McCain health plan will solve — or even help — our problem in North Carolina," he said. 

Purcell said that Obama's plan would work better because it builds on existing employer-provided insurance plans and expands government programs to help the uninsured. 

Planned Parenthood has announced its endorsements.

The Central North Carolina chapter of the reproductive health advocacy group has endorsed Barack Obama for president, Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate and Beverly Perdue for governor. All three are Democrats.

"It's simple. Barack Obama, Kay Hagan and Bev Perdue trust women to make personal reproductive health decisions without government intrusion," said Janet Colm, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central North Carolina. "Their opponents do not."

The organization noted their support for comprehensive sex education, affordable birth control and expanded health coverage. 

N.C. Republicans for Obama launched Thursday.

More than 200 registered Republicans from across the state signed onto a petition supporting Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the presidential race this November. 

In a conference call with reporters, former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he decided to support Obama in the Rhode Island primary and head up a national Republicans for Obama group out of disappointment with President Bush's foreign and economic policies.

He also said that Obama ran the best campaign.

"His campaign was the best run, best organized, and he was the CEO of that," he said. "All the other campaigns had cost overruns and management shakeups. Not the Obama campaign. And that translates into administration."

Pamella Cash-Roper, an unemployed nurse and lifelong Republican from Pittsboro who appeared at an Obama rally in June, said she supports Obama because of his approach to the economy and health care.

"Voters in North Carolina cannot afford four more years of the same failed Bush economic policies," she said.

The complete list of Republicans for Obama is online here. 

Beverly Perdue used one of Pat McCrory's old debates against him.

During the WTVD debate tonight, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate referred to something McCrory said during an April 10 debate in the Republican primary.

"My opponent says that children's health care insurance sends the wrong signal," she said. "I don't understand that."

At the debate, McCrory said that government health care was encouraging teen-agers to get pregnant "in a way" because "they know they're going to get free medical care for their children."

"We're sending the wrong signals by our government programs right now," he said during the Republican debate.

During tonight's debate, McCrory said he did not what Perdue was talking about.

"I don't know where she got that quote from and I look forward to seeing it some day and I'm sure it's out of context like many of the negative ads ... from national Washington groups and labor unions," he said.

Reminded by a reporter afterward, McCrory said that he was talking about preventive measures for teen pregnancies in that quote, noting that he's heard from kids he's mentored that they see pregnancy as "a way out."

"I in no way meant that I would want to take away health insurance from children," he said.