Jack Hawke said Barack Obama's impressive get-out-the-vote effort made the climb to the governor's mansion too steep for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

Hawke, a long-time Republican strategist and senior advisor to McCrory's Republican campaign for governor, said he hasn't had the heart to study election returns in depth. And he said he's not one to make a whole lot of excuses.

But in comparing results in federal races to the results in statewide races, it's clear to Hawke that Obama's get-out-the-vote effort helped Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue win the election.

"That vote had nothing to do with the issues beneath a national level," Hawke said. "I think the Obama ground game and the ability they had to organize and get out the vote made a huge difference."

McCrory lost Mecklenburg County by 385 votes. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole lost the county by more than 105,000 votes. Sen. John McCain lost Mecklenburg County by nearly 100,000 votes. So in comparison, McCrory did pretty well.

"I think that's a testament to him as a candidate and maybe to our message," Hawke said.

McCrory performed much better in rural areas and Hawke said the Obama organization was just too strong in urban areas. Without that organization, McCrory could have picked up enough votes in Forsyth, Guilford, Buncombe and Cumberland counties to win the race, Hawke said. 

Beverly Perdue said Wednesday that she would strip most specific decisions from the state Board of Transportation.

Perdue was speaking to The N&O's editorial board and she outlined eight executive orders she would issue on inauguration day.

Perdue said she would be able to use an executive order to convert the transportation board, which now approves contracts, spending and projects, into a panel focused on long-term planning.

"I want to take the money out of the board. I want to transform the way DOT does business," she said.

She would not promise to ban fundraisers from the board, saying her proposals would make their influence moot. Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, has said he would not appoint any of his fundraisers to the board.

Two board members — Louis W. Sewell Jr. and Thomas Betts Jr. — who are also Perdue fundraisers have resigned from the board this year.

"It seems to me the best way you can tell what someone is going to do in the future is to take a look at what they're doing right now and what they've done in the past," said Jack Hawke, a strategist for McCrory's campaign. "The lieutenant governor has used the Board of Transportation as her finance committee."

More, including Perdue's other proposals, after the jump.

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Last week, Pat McCrory argued that Beverly Perdue should return campaign donations raised by a Board of Transportation member who steered public money to road improvements near properties he or a son co-owned.

He ended the week by attending a fundraiser on Emerald Isle that pulled in more than $100,000 — half from Tommy Pollard, a former transportation board member from Jacksonville who did the same thing 20 years ago.

McCrory's campaign said they will not return the $50,000.

"It's a bogus story to compare someone who is -- as a volunteer citizen of the state of North Carolina with no power — out raising money, compared to someone who is sitting on the Board of Transportation and is using that position to raise money," Jack Hawke, McCrory's campaign strategist, said Wednesday.

He added, "What happened 25 years ago has nothing to do with what's happening today."

In 1989, the State Bureau of Investigation probed whether Pollard violated state law by pushing for the installation of 10 traffic lights at an intersection where he owned property. It found no violation, but the then attorney general said the law needed to be changed. (N&O)

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory was involved in a fender-bender in between campaign appearances today.

McCrory was a passenger in a car that collided with another in Salisbury, said Jack Hawke, a campaign strategist, Dan Kane reports.

Neither McCrory, the GOP nominee for governor, nor the campaign aide driving the car were hurt, Hawke said. They used the same vehicle to go to the next event in Winston-Salem.

The campaign aide told Hawke that the driver of the other vehicle apologized after the accident, and admitted to not seeing McCrory's car.

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly stated that McCrory had used another car to go to the next event.

Jack Hawke says outside ads are a new ballgame.

The longtime Republican campaign consultant says he's had to learn new tactics to respond to third-party ads from so-called 527 organizations for gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory. He called them an "unintended consequence" of campaign finance reform.

"It's put a whole new wrinkle in politics," he said. "All of a sudden you've got outside groups making allegations, while the candidate can say 'Oh, I don't know anything about that, I had nothing to do with it,' while they're in the back room cheering."

As a former chairman of the state Republican Party, Hawke approved ads attacking Democratic candidates, but he said they were more transparent than those run by 527 groups such as the Alliance for North Carolina.

"If the party is giving the money and running the ad, we know what their motive is," he said. "The different labor unions have poured probably millions of dollars in to this state in recent years. ... Is the goal to do away with the right-to-work state? Is the goal to be able to have state employees go into collective bargaining? What is the goal?"

In addition, he said that party ads were more closely tied to the candidate, making it harder to do a misleading negative attack without potential of a backlash.

"It can hurt your candidate, too," he said. "When he's on the ballot up there, he's under the label Republican."  

"I'm an old man," Hawke joked, "and I've got to learn a new playbook." 

Pat McCrory planned to go on the air after Labor Day.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate said today that he was forced to begin airing his own ad today because of an ad run by the Alliance for North Carolina attacking his record.

"We did feel like we need to let the public know that much of this ad was very misleading and very inaccurate," he said.

He called the Alliance, a 527 funded by a teachers' union and the Democratic Governors Association, a "very mysterious group" based in Washington, D.C.

He also said it was "extremely inappropriate" that the ad instructed viewers to call the Charlotte mayor's office, which has received about 300 calls during the past two weeks.

"The good news is over 60 percent of those calls have actually been people very upset about the ad and ... wanting to inform me of their support for the campaign," he said.

McCrory's ad notes that he has been attacked, but does not directly rebut the Alliance ad. Campaign consultant Jack Hawke said that they did not want to get into a "tit for tat" argument with an outside group.

The McCrory campaign intends to spend $150,000 over the next 10 days airing the ads in the same markets as the Alliance ad — essentially the state's major urban areas except for Charlotte.

A Gaston County strip club owner gave Pat McCrory's campaign $200.

Sammy Tillman, owner of the Paper Doll Lounge (NSFW) in Charlotte, made the donation on Feb. 2, according to the Republican gubernatorial nominee's first-quarter campaign finance report. 

Billed as an "upscale gentleman's club," the Paper Doll claims to be the "grand daddy" of Charlotte clubs on its Web site, while a theme song claims to serve "cowboy playboys."

Consultant Jack Hawke said that the campaign did not realize Tillman's occupation, noting that its accountants also referred to former U.S. Sen. Jim Broyhill as a state legislator.

"They don't always catch who everybody is," he said. "It's a $200 contribution. We've accepted it, and I think that's basically the end of the story."

Hawke also joked about the size of the donation.

"I can tell you this, Pat McCrory's not going to take his pants off for $200," he said. When asked if that meant he would do so for more, he demurred. 

"I don't know what the amount is," he said, laughing. 

The main part of the chapel where Jesse Helms' funeral will be held is already full.

The Hayes Barton Baptist Church has opened an overflow room to accommodate the hundreds who have already shown up or are expected at the funeral this afternoon.

Among those who have arrived: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and her husband, Bob; Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

There are also a number of former Helms' employees, including Bill Berryhill, the first executive director of the Congressional Club and a onetime aide. Also spotted: state Rep. Leo Daughtry and Republican consultant Jack Hawke. 

And there are people with other connections to Helms, such as Bill Eller, a Durham resident whose dad worked as Helms' 1972 Iredell County campaign manager.  

The services begin at 2 p.m. 

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has picked a veteran Tar Heel political operative to run his gubernatorial campaign.

Richard Hudson is returning from Washington, where he was chief of staff to U.S. Rep. John Carter of Texas, who is secretary of the Republican Conference.

Hudson is well known in state GOP circles, reports Rob Christensen. Hudson served as communications director of the state Republican Party in the late 1990s, before moving on to manage the campaigns and serve on the congressional staff of U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord. Hudson also worked in the 2000 gubernatorial campaign of Richard Vinroot.

“We wanted someone who had campaign experience — someone who has statewide knowledge and who can manage the day-to-day campaign,” said Jack Hawke, McCrory’s chief consultant.

The McCrory campaign has also hired Neal Harrington as finance director. Harrington was formerly the finance director for U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte.

Jeff Taylor says Pat McCrory should not be seen with George W. Bush.

In a post on the Meck Deck, the conservative Charlotte blogger writes that McCrory adviser Jack Hawke is "playing with fire" by bringing the president in for a private fundraiser with McCrory.

In fact, he argues, McCrory would do better by emulating Barack Obama as an outsider bringing change to Raleigh.

In fact, McCrory is in many ways a GOP Obama — very good on TV, attuned to hot button issues, but relatively inexperienced in the issues of the office he aspires to and lacking depth. With these traits you minimize weaknesses by always moving forward, never pausing too long to give the other team a clean shot at you.

He questions whether McCrory's campaign will release any videos or stills of the event.