ASHEVILLE — North Carolina's two main gubernatorial candidates today pledged more transparency in government.

But they split over their solutions to high gas prices and their willingness to debate.

Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Bev Perdue made their comments during separate appearances before editors and publishers of the N.C. Press Association, reports Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer.

"I have a record of being extremely open and transparent," McCrory said.

Perdue promised that under her, North Carolina "would be known as the state with open, accessible government."

McCrory took the occasion to unveil his energy initiative, a combination of conservation measures, new oil drilling and a push for alternative energy sources including coal and nuclear.

He proposed a statewide transportation plan that would extend land-use planning and some form of mass transit to communities throughout the state. He also called for the state to build more "green" buildings and offered tax incentives for individuals and corporations to build the same kind.

But he also repeated his support for off-shore oil drilling, which he said would create jobs and pour money back into North Carolina for coastal conservation programs.

Perdue said drilling would never occur "on my watch."

"That's politically popular," she said. "If you want somebody who looks at a poll and gets solutions, that's not me."

McCrory chided Perdue for not agreeing to more debates. He had accepted an offer to debate before the N.C. Association of Broadcasters on Sunday, but the Perdue campaign did not.

Perdue said she's already agreed to several debates. As for McCrory's challenge, she said, "I think that is really just whining."

How would Pat McCrory spend the oil proceeds?

The Republican gubernatorial nominee said today that he would allow oil companies to drill off the coast of North Carolina in exchange for a 37.5 percent share of the revenue from the federal government.

He mentioned several possible ways the money could be spent.

"I believe this additional revenue received (by) the state will help our education, will help pay our teachers, will help pave our roads, will help implement mass transportation programs ... will help replenish our beaches ... will help our criminal justice system and will help our overall budget during the next decade and beyond," he said.

Dome asked if McCrory would be willing to set aside the money for alternative energy, mass transit or conservation measures. He said he would push for a portion to be spent on alternative transportation, beach nourishment and protecting the coastline.

"I think I ought to let the legislature help decide where to best use that revenue," he said. 

The mayor of the Queen City kicked off with a little Queen.

Before making a speech at a Raleigh rally this evening, Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory sat down at a drum set belonging to the Craig Woolard Band and rocked out.

The Charlotte mayor, a classic rock fan, briefly played the beat of the Queen anthem "We Will Rock You" while Americans for Prosperity head Dallas Woodhouse sang raggedly vocals in a manner worthy of McCrory's fabled "garage band" style.

In a 10-minute speech, McCrory then pledged to address the problem of "local, national and international gangs," direct transportation spending to congested roads and reduce the state's high school dropout rate. Most of all, he promised to "change the culture" of Raleigh, saying it's been ruled by "four or five power elites."

"You've got to have a governor that you see — not just at election time, but after the election is over," he said.

Afterward, McCrory was asked how much practice he had before the gig.

"I got kicked out of ninth-grade band class because I'm a bad drummer," he said.

State Rep. Nelson Dollar is focused on roads.

The Cary Republican said that his biggest priority during the short session is putting together a transportation bond for the fall and spending more road money on urban and suburban congestion.

"We need to fix the transportation funding formula so that we're addressing areas like we have here in the Triangle where commuters are driving on roads that were never designed for commuter traffic," he said.

Aside from the budget, his biggest goal is enacting a temporary moratorium on involuntary annexations.

"You've got far too many cities and towns in the past 10 years that have been aggressively reaching out and trying to grab these folks for their tax base," he said. "These folks have no real voice in the process."

Rep. Grier Martin is focused on raising state workers' salaries.

The Raleigh Democrat said that his biggest budget-related goal this session will be to bring teachers' salaries closer to the national average and give state workers a pay raise.

He does not think Gov. Mike Easley's proposed 7 percent pay raise for teachers and 1.5 percent raise for state employees is enough, though he declined to give a specific percentage that he would like to see.

"We need more," he said, "but we've got to figure out how we're going to pay for that too."

Apart from the budget, Martin said he hopes the legislature does not rush a comprehensive transportation fix. He said that it's too big of an issue to solve in a short session, though he hopes the legislature will make progress on finishing Interstate 540 and providing light rail in the Triangle.

"We do not need to be solving the transportation issue (in the short session) because that is a problem that requires careful, well-informed thought and doesn't lend itself to a quick and dirty solution," he said. "We'll just screw it up."

Clarification: Martin said he supports a transportation bond this fall, but not an overhaul of the entire system in the short session. 

Why did Beverly Perdue beat Richard Moore?

In a primary election as unusual as this one, it's dangerous to get too confident when drawing conclusions, but here are a few educated guesses about how Perdue won the primary today.

She was the frontrunner. As a two-term lieutenant governor and longtime legislator with a bevy of endorsements from big groups, Perdue was the favorite from the start and Moore never managed to knock her down.

She had good issues. Perdue had a good portfolio on both soft issues (health care, education) and hard issues (the military). Moore's issues were more national (climate change, Wall Street reform) and wonky (the line-item veto, transportation reform).

She benefited from high turnout. Perdue had strong support among women and black voters, two groups that were energized by the unusually competitive presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

She went positive. Perdue and Moore both ran nasty campaigns through the fall, but Perdue went positive just as most voters started paying attention. That endeared her to Obama's "change" voters, won points for gutsiness and made Moore's attacks look bad.

She had fewer enemies. Moore manages the state pension fund? State employees sue him. Moore crusades on Wall Street? Forbes magazine attacks his campaign funding. Moore makes his case on education? The N.C. Association of Educators attacks him.

Moore never succeeded in opening any daylight between his campaign and Perdue's. When he endorsed Obama, she endorsed Obama. When he called for raising the minimum wage, opposed coal plants at Cliffside, etc. etc., so did she.

With the wind at her back from turnout, endorsements and expectations, Perdue managed to stay in the lead throughout the primary despite early missteps.

Gas prices and public transportation topped the list of transportation concerns among N.C. residents in the latest Elon University Poll.

Four out of every five respondents supported improving public transportation and widening existing roads as solutions to traffic congestion. But most respondents opposed an increase in parking fees or highway tolls to fund such measures.

Respondents favored special fees on developers or weight fees on trucks to fund road construction and maintenance instead of property or fuel taxes.

Regional rail systems and commuter rails also received the support of a majority of respondents.

About 60 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of the N.C. Department of Transportation. About forty percent were unsatisfied with the provision of public transportation and road construction.

In February, The N&O reported accusations of conflicts of interest in the department.

Richard Moore is pressing Beverly Perdue on the Neuse River Bridge.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate has questioned whether the lieutenant governor profited from a $120 million bridge in New Bern she lobbied for as a state senator.

The bridge replaced an unsafe span and helped fuel growth. A few months after it opened, a 150-acre housing development called Quail Woods five miles from the bridge became active. Perdue was a corporate officer and later co-owner.

"New Bern needed a bridge, but not a $120 million, four-lane Taj Mahal," said Jay Reiff, Moore's campaign manager. 

But Perdue's staff point out that the older bridge was rated less safe than the one that collapsed in Minnesota last year, the state Board of Transportation voted unanimously for it and 22 local governments passed resolutions in favor of it.

Bob Hall, research director for the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina, said that he has seen no evidence of corruption.

"There's no smoking gun here," he said. (Char-O) 

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue said today that the Board of Transportation reform law that she championed in 1998 was intended to require full disclosure of fundraising activity by board appointees.

"When the law was passed we intended for it to have full disclosure," said Perdue, who officially became a Democratic candidate for governor this morning by filing the required forms at the State Board of Elections. She did not specify what full disclosure would entail, reports Dan Kane.

The News & Observer reported on Feb. 3 that two current board members—D.M. 'Mac' Campbell of Elizabethtown and Louis W. Sewell Jr. of Jacksonville—raised money for Gov. Mike Easley's 2000 campaign, but said on disclosure forms they were required to file with the state that they were not fundraisers.

Their responses on the forms came after Easley obtained an attorney general's opinion of the reform law that said fundraisers did not have to disclose their efforts unless they personally accepted contributions from individuals. That meant that typical fundraising activities such as holding receptions and soliciting people for contributions were not considered fundraising.

Perdue was asked if she was surprised that the law had led to a narrow interpretation of fundraising.

"I was interested in the different way different members have interpreted the law," she said, "so I think the key for us in North Carolina is to have one standard for everybody."

Read more after the jump. 

In the audio below, Perdue answers Dan Kane's questions while filing for office, while her campaign spokesman, David Kochman, says it's not the time.

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Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory initially announced he was running for "governer." Now he wants to take away some perks enjoyed by "individual state legislatures."

McCrory, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, announced today his plans for dealing with transportation issues in North Carolina. Part of his proposal calls for reforming the powerful board that oversees the state Department of Transportation.

That would include requiring board members to have specific qualifications in areas such as engineering, construction and economic development. McCrory also said board members should not be allowed to contribute to state political campaigns, and that he would remove any appointees who have a "direct financial interest" in a board decision.

McCrory also said he would eliminate discretionary funds "reserved for DOT members or individual state legislatures."