Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore's latest TV ad attacks rival Beverly Perdue over a gun bill she worked on in the legislature, Ben Niolet reports.

What the ad says: Moore: "I'm Richard Moore, candidate for governor and I sponsored this ad." Announcer: "Decisions say a lot about character. Like the time Bev Perdue fought against a law to keep guns out of our schools. Newspapers said she was lending the gun lobby a hand, choosing the gun industry over our kids. And then there’s Perdue's vote to restrict a woman's right to choose. The Charlotte Observer said she let politics, not principle govern her performance. Is Bev Perdue a Democrat we can trust?"

The background: In 1993, the legislature was considering a bill to toughen penalties for bringing a gun to school. A House version of the bill made it a crime for a parent to not have a gun locked up. The National Rifle Association supported toughening the penalties for bringing a gun to school, but opposed requiring gun owners to keep firearms locked.

Perdue, then a state senator, consulted with NRA lobbyists and offered an amendment to the Senate’s version of the bill to replace the locked storage requirement with a provision that made it a crime for gun owners to have "reckless possession of firearms."

Supporters of the original bill said the new provision was toothless and the locked storage requriement would save lives. The law that ultimately passed made it a crime for a gun owner to allow a child to get hold of a gun and to use it unlawfully. Perdue voted for the law.

Editorials in The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and The News & Record of Greensboro supported the locked storage provision and criticized Perdue’s amendment.

The ad's claim about a vote to restrict a woman's right to choose refers to the state's fiscal 1996 budget. Perdue was one of the Senate's chief budget writers that year and the $9.5 billion spending plan cut by 96 percent a state fund that paid for abortions for poor women. Perdue voted for the budget.

At the time, North Carolina was the only Southern state to fund abortions for poor women, taking over that responsibility after Congress ended abortion funding for Medicaid recipients. Republicans took control of the N.C. House in 1995 and vowed to end tax-financed abortions.

A Charlotte Observer editorial criticized Perdue for the vote, saying it was not in keeping with her long record of supporting abortion rights. In the race for governor, Perdue has been endorsed by pro-choice organizations such as EMILY'S List, the National Women's Political Caucus, NOW and the Women's Campaign Forum.

Is the ad accurate? Not entirely.

Perdue voted for a bill that toughened penalties for bringing guns to schools. She introduced an amendment in the Senate that weakened the bill, but it’s a stretch to say she "fought against a law to keep guns out of our schools."

The 1996 state budget cut state-funded abortions in North Carolina by 96 percent and made it tougher for poor women to have an abortion. But the ad's claim could be interpreted by some viewers to mean that Perdue does not support abortion rights when she has the support of pro-choice organizations.

Beverly Perdue raised $6.1 million by the end of 2007.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate raised $5.6 million from major donors, including Sanjay Mundra of the Soleil Group development company, MBM CEO Jerry Wordsworth, Grady-White Boats CEO Eddie Smith and Greenville Daily Reflector publisher Jordan Whichard.

She raised $32,762 from donors who gave less than $50.

She received $171,737 from political action committees, including BB&T, the Women's Campaign Forum and the N.C. Hospital Association, and $60,300 from other politicians' campaigns, including state Rep. Bill Owens, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and Sen. Dan Clodfelter.

She gave her campaign $3,340 in in-kind contributions, and her husband Robert Eaves Jr. gave $10,495 in in-kind contributions.

In addition, the campaign owes Eaves $275,000 for loans made during her 2000 campaign for lieutenant governor.

She also received a $5,993 in-kind contribution from the N.C. Democratic Party.

At the same time, Perdue spent $1.5 million on travel, office expenses, mailers, consulting and campaign events.

That left her with $4.5 million in cash on hand.

Beverly Perdue has received $171,737 from political action committees since 2005.

According to campaign finance reports filed since her 2004 re-election as lieutenant governor, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has received money from 75 PACs. 

She received $4,000 each from Anesthesiologists of the Triad, Bank of America, BB&T, the CCHC medical PAC, Coca-Cola, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, General Electric, GlaxoSmithKline, HNTB, McGuire Woods, the Nationwide Carolina Political Participation Fund, the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Automobile Dealers, the N.C. Hospital Association, the N.C. Realtors PAC, the NP health PAC, Piedmont Natural Gas, Progress Energy, the Singh real estate PAC, Wachovia, Western Radiologists and Surgeons, and the Women's Campaign Forum.

She also received money from Time Warner Cable, Eli Lilly, PSNC energy, Pepsi, the N.C. Trucking Association, Embarq, the N.C. Association of Convenience Stores, the N.C. Association of Pharmacists, Caremark drug management and the N.C. Farm Bureau.

The Women's Campaign Forum endorsed Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue for governor in 2008.

Since the Washington-based nonprofit only endorses pro-choice women, it didn't have many choices in North Carolina's crowded race.

Still, president Ilana Goldman said it only gets involved in a race when it has a compelling candidate.

"Since she's the only pro-choice woman in the race, you could call that a slam dunk, but there are plenty of other races out there for us," she said.

As the Women's Campaign Fund, the group previously endorsed Patsy Keever's unsuccessful 2004 campaign for the 11th Congressional seat, Elaine Marshall's runs for secretary of state and Libba Evans' unsuccessful 1994 bid for the 5th Congressional seat.

A related political action committee usually gives a few thousand dollars to endorsed candidates, and the group encourages its national membership to donate as well.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated the year of Elaine Marshall's campaign.