Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan's criticized Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's support for privatizing Social Security today, saying the current market crisis would have placed the program in jeopardy.

"I'm absolutely opposed to privatization," Hagan said at a news conference at state Democratic headquarters Wednesday. "Elizabeth Dole campaigned on privatization of Social Security in 2002. George Bush took her on the road with him in 2005 to show that you can campaign for privatization of Social Security and actually win."

Hagan raised the issue at a time when the stock market has been in free fall and people are worried about the declining value of their retirement savings.  There are 1.6 million Social Security recipients in North Carolina, a powerful voting bloc, Rob Christensen reports.

"Where would we be in the last two weeks if Social Security had been privatized?" said Jerry Cooper, executive director of the N.C. Assisted Living Association, who appeared with Hagan.

The Dole campaign Wednesday accused Hagan of "lying to scare seniors" and said it was a campaign tactic that Democrats used nearly every election.

More after the jump.

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Beverly Perdue has received $47,500 from political action committees in the health-care industry.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, who worked as a hospital consultant, received money from 22 health-care PACS in the current election cycle, according to campaign finance reports.

The donors include pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca International, Roche Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly & Co.; Caremark, which handles drug management programs; and pharmacists, Kerr Drug and the PILL PAC, which represents pharmacists.

She also received money from industry groups: The Nurse Practitioners PAC, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Assisted Living Association, the Association for Home & Hospice Care of N.C., the N.C. Hospital Association, and the N.C. Association of Long-Term Care Facilities.

In addition, she received money from specific medical groups: Anesthesiologists of the Triad, Western Radiologists and Surgeons in Asheville, Piedmont Triad Anesthesia, Asheville Anesthesia Associates, Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants in Charlotte, the Mountain Neurological Center in Asheville, Blue Ridge Bone & Joint and Western Carolina OB/GYN.

The money made up more than a fourth of Perdue's PAC contributions.