Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's latest radio ad attacks Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory on immigration, traveling trash and, as part of her continuing effort to appeal to voters in eastern and rural North Carolina, road funding.

What the ad says:

Bill: Hey Henry.

Henry: Hey Bill.

Bill: What are you doing?

Henry: Reading my mail. Got another brochure from that mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory.

Bill: I got that too. I’m surprised he even thinks us folks out in the country can read...

Henry: ... or have indoor plumbing

Bill: McCrory sure has been insulting to us.

Henry: I know. I read in the paper that he said Charlotte's getting ripped off, and he’d take money away from rural highways...

Bill: ...Oh, you’re kidding.

Henry: Why Bill, he even questioned whether we should pave roads in small towns and rural areas.

Bill: And you know, McCrory's the guy who wants to let New Jersey and New York ship their garbage down here to North Carolina.

Henry: Pee yew. Of course now he's trying to change the subject and look tough on immigration.

Bill: Yeah, but I saw where McCrory admitted he paid illegal immigrants to work on city projects in Charlotte.

Henry: I guess McCrory's found two country boys who can’t get fooled.

Bill: Henry, McCrory's going to find out on election day who the fool is.

Perdue: This is Bev Perdue, candidate for Governor and I sponsored this ad. Paid for by Bev Perdue Committee.

The background: McCrory has repeatedly criticized the funding formula that determines how state road dollars will be spent. He has complained that the formula does not adequately account for population in deciding which areas should get more money. McCrory has said that metropolitan areas should get more money, which would mean rural areas would get less.

The claim that McCrory questioned whether rural roads should be paved is a stretch. In 2000, at a meeting of North Carolina mayors, McCrory said that the state's policy of building paved roads to every community encourages sprawl, according to an Associated Press account.

McCrory's statement about Charlotte getting "ripped off" also refers to criticism of state funding formulas.

The garbage talk refers to the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. Favored by environmentalists, the bill was designed to restrict new landfills in the state. It was spurred by concerns that private regional landfills would turn N.C. into one of the country's top five importers of trash. One landfill, proposed for rural northeastern North Carolina, would have buried up to 3 million tons of garbage a year and create a trash mountain 270-feet high.

McCrory cited the measure as an example of the kind of bill he would veto as governor. But he calls the ad a distortion.

That's because the bill also included new taxes on municipalities. An early version would have charged minicipalities $2.50 per ton to dump trash and debris. The N.C. League of Municipalities also opposed the bill, at least at first. It dropped its opposition after winning concessions such as getting a larger share of the proceeds to local governments and lowering the so-called tip tax to $2.

McCrory said in interviews in 2005 that he believed, but did not know, that there were illegal immigrants working for sub-contractors on city-funded construction projects, as there likely were at employers throughout the city. He said the city did not have the staff or resources to try and enforce laws that the federal government is supposed to enforce.

Is the ad accurate: No. McCrory questioned a policy of paving roads to all developments, and both Democrats and Republicans have questioned the state's road funding formula. He opposed the trash bill over the tax. It's misleading to say he wanted to import trash. On illegal immigrants, he made clear he had no firsthand knowledge that they were working on the construction sites, so at best he was admitting to speculating. He also raised the issue in the context of the need for federal enforcement.

— Mark Johnson

Democrat Beverly Perdue's campaign is running a new TV ad in her race against Republican Pat McCrory, accusing him of opposing a bill that would have allowed large landfills in North Carolina.

What the ad says: The ad shows pictures of garbage-filled barges in New York Harbor and newspaper stories about a 2007 bill. Announcer: "It's trash day in New York City. What will they do with all that garbage? If Pat McCrory becomes our governor, that won't be a problem. Because McCrory wants to let New York and New Jersey dump their garbage in North Carolina. Newspapers say we would become the garbage capital of the East Coast. It's no surprise McCrory's gotten thousands of dollars from landfill owners. Pat McCrory, don't let him dump on us."

The background: The ad refers to the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. Favored by environmentalists, the bill was designed to restrict new landfills in the state.

It was spurred by concerns that private regional landfills would turn N.C. into one of the country's top five importers of trash. One landfill, proposed for rural northeastern North Carolina, would have buried up to 3 million tons of garbage a year and create a trash mountain 270-feet high.

McCrory cited the measure as an example of the kind of bill he would veto as governor. But he calls the ad a distortion.

That's because the bill also included new taxes on municipalities. An early version would have charged minicipalities $2.50 per ton to dump trash and debris.

The N.C. League of Municipalities also opposed the bill, at least at first.

It dropped its opposition after winning concessions such as getting a larger share of the proceeds to local governments and lowering the so-called tip tax to $2.

McCrory did receive a contribution this year from Lonnie Poole of Raleigh, chairman of Waste Industries.

Is it accurate? Technically. He did oppose the bill and it does restrict large corporate landfills in the state.

But did McCrory want to create a series of trash mountains? Doubtful. The Charlotte mayor, like the League of Municipalities, wanted to save cities from the taxes the bill carried.

— Jim Morrill