The latest swing in the governor's race is in Beverly Perdue's favor, according to the latest results from Public Policy Polling.

PPP surveyed 1,202 likely voters on Oct. 4-5 and found that Perdue was the preference of 46 percent. Republican Pat McCrory was the choise of 43 percent, and Libertarian Mike Munger was the choice of 4 percent.

The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Officials with PPP say that problems with the economy are bolstering Perdue's campaign. They said Perdue had a 56-35 lead among likely voters who say their top concern is the economy. That's up from 48-38 among such voters a week ago.

"She's connecting better with voters as she talks more about the economy, and that's helping to bring some of her base voters home," said Dean Debnam, president of PPP, a Democratic polling firm.

The governor's race continues to be close, according to the latest numbers from Public Policy Polling.

A quick look at the numbers:

Democrat Beverly Perdue: 44

Republican Pat McCrory: 43

Libertarian Michael Munger: 6

PPP surveyed 1,060 likely voters from Sept. 17-19. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.

Public Policy Polling has some new numbers out in the governor's race, but they look pretty much like the old numbers.

Democrat Beverly Perdue continues to lead Republican Pat McCrory in the latest survey. The new numbers are 43 percent for Perdue, 38 percent for McCrory and 4 percent for Libertarian candidate Michael Munger.

PPP surveyed 904 likely voters Aug. 20-23. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Tom Jensen of PPP says that McCrory, the longtime mayor of Charlotte, is having trouble getting traction elsewhere in the state. He says that McCrory leads 54-33 percent in the greater Charlotte area, but "trails in every other region of the state."

Michael Munger wants us to know he has a nickname too.

The Libertarian gubernatorial candidate complains that he was left out of a recent series of Dome items about nicknames and shorter names of the candidates.

Munger points out that he's often referred to as "Mike," but he's appealing to voters as "Michael."

Google confirms that more Web sites list him by the longer version of his name (20,100) than the shorter version (14,400). His campaign site prefers "Michael," while his professorial page likes "Mike." (And his blog eschews both for "Mungowitz.")

The press leans toward "Michael," with 103 results in a Nexis search to "Mike's" 66.

And, tellingly, Munger is on the ballot as "Michael C. Munger."

Perhaps we're reading too much into this whole name thing, but Dome would venture a guess that third-party candidates — who are usually trying to boost their credibility — favor the more formal versions of their names for that reason. 

"Chilipunked" has made it to Montana.

In his Watch Yer Language blog, Billings Gazette copy desk chief Craig Lancaster notes that he's run across the word on Under the Dome, via UNC-Chapel Hill professor Andy Bechtel's copy editor blog.

While I’m certainly not prepared to give chilipunked a free ride into print, it is an entertaining little word, one that I’d happily drop into a casual conversation with friends. A similar but more instantly decipherable word is weaksauce, one I use too often (but never, never, never in formal writing).

A few more references, and the word will be well-prepped for the 2050 edition of the O.E.D.

The Libertarian Party plans to post challengers in some legislative races.

The party has collected more than 95,000 signatures and is in the process of certifying them with local elections officials and the State Board of Election, according to would-be gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger.

In an e-mail to Dome, the Duke University political science professor said that once the party plans to field candidates in "quite a few" of the 56 races with no competition.

"We'd (the Libertarians) love to be able to have a primary, but the state denied our right to do that when they used their discretion to decertify us after the 2004 election," he wrote.

He also said that Dome's failure to mention the possibility of Libertarian candidates "chilipunked" him. We have no earthly idea what that verb means.