Is Beverly Perdue a bad debater?

Democratic consultant Gary Pearce said allowing her to debate five times was "political malfeasance." Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts said Republican Pat McCrory is "more polished." WUNC reporter Laura Leslie said debates "aren't Perdue's strongest suit."

Dome's take: The format makes the difference.

McCrory has clearly outshined Perdue in sit-down debates that allowed more back-and-forth between the candidates, such as the recent debates on WRAL and WTVD.

But the two are more evenly matched in formal settings with podiums and timers, such as the recent debate at the SAS Institute. Perdue excelled in that type of setting during her primary debates against Richard Moore.

Their backgrounds may help explain that. As Betts noted, Perdue has presided over the Senate for eight years. It's a place where formality reigns. Parliamentary rules determine the course of the debate and legislators take turns giving short speeches.

City council meetings are much more informal. Mayors and council members typically sit, discussion is more freewheeling and thinking on your feet is a virtue. Typically, only the city attorney keeps careful track of Robert's Rules of Orders.

In addition, state legislators rarely debate during their campaigns, while McCrory has faced a number of televised debates in his biennial campaigns for mayor.

In short, the more the debate is like the Senate, the better Perdue does. But when it's more like a City Council meeting, McCrory tends to win the day.

If we're right, then Perdue's decision to skip the UNC-TV debate tonight — a formal debate that will be aired statewide — was a strategic mistake.

Mike Munger says offshore drilling is a gimmick.

The Libertarian gubernatorial candidate told Dome that after watching the debate last night online he thought the answers of his Republican and Democratic opponents were "shallow and unimaginative, even by the rather low standards of the other debates so far."

"The offshore oil drilling 'issue' is a gimmick," he wrote in an e-mail. "There will no effect, zero, on prices in N.C. The governor of N.C. needs to work to make sure that HIGH prices have the economic benefit of encouraging the development of alternative energy sources."

Munger was writing from Australia, where he was invited to lecture and learn about alternative energy sources and waste management.

"I have the background, and ideas for solutions, that will help North Carolina solve its energy problems," he wrote. "Bickering about drilling off the coast of N.C. isn't going to solve anything." 

Munger was not invited to the WRAL debate. 

Beverly Perdue says mental health is not separate from physical health.

In response to a post earlier this morning, spokesman David Kochman said that she was not saying that mental health and physical health are different things during a debate at WRAL last night.

"To clarify, Bev was talking about her responsibilities as chair of the Health and Wellness Trust Fund not extending to mental health," he wrote Dome. "In most of North Carolina's policy discussions, mental health has been cordoned off in its own separate category. But she's the one candidate who has repeatedly said that the only way to fix the system is to stop treating mental and physical healthcare as two separate systems."

He pointed to a section of Perdue's campaign Web site that echoes this thought.

"My background in health care tells me that it makes no sense to separate mental from physical health care," Perdue says on the site.

Later in the day, Republicans also pointed to the same section to criticize Perdue.

"Which is it, Bev?" said N.C. GOP chairwoman Linda Daves in a statement. "Is there a difference between mental health care and physical health care or not?"

Is there a difference between physical and mental health?

In recent years, mental health providers and advocates have sought to blur the line between diseases of the mind and body, arguing that it is a false distinction that leads to common misperceptions of how mental illness works.

In pop culture, mental illness is caused by childhood trauma or an inability to cope and is solved with Freudian talk therapy. But increasingly doctors are finding that genetic problems or brain injuries are behind many problems and prescription drugs are the answer.

(Advocates also hope that erasing the distinction will lead to mental health parity — meaning that insurers and the government do not distinguish between heart disease and bipolar disorder, for example, when paying for care.)

It would be mostly an academic question, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue used the distinction during a debate Tuesday to argue she was not responsible for the problems with the state's mental health reform efforts.

When Republican Pat McCrory noted that Perdue has called herself a "health leader" in the state, she responded: "Physical health, not mental health, Pat. There's a real difference."

Since 2001, Perdue has chaired the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund. Although the group did not play a role in mental health reform, it has tackled the issue of mental health.

In this May 2007 press release, for example, the group announced that it was providing a grant for mental health providers to help with prescription drug needs.

Update: The Perdue campaign responds here. 

Beverly Perdue took the strongest step away from Gov. Mike Easley yet on Tuesday.

At a debate on WRAL last night, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said several times that she would be a "more hand's on governor" than Easley. 

After being pressed by moderator Pam Saulsby to be specific, Perdue said that she would have handled mental health reform differently.

"If the mental health crisis had happened on my watch, I would have been there," she said. "I would have gone into the institutions."

Still, Perdue was careful not to attack Easley too much, adding that he did "a great job" in the budget crisis of the early 2000s and saying she would be different from Govs. Jim Hunt or Jim Martin as well.

Republican Pat McCrory also said he would have handled mental health differently, but he went after Easley and the "power elite" in Raleigh much more forcefully.

"I would not have decentralized the mental health care system without telling anyone about it and then not taking accountabilty for it," he said. "We've had people die in our mental health care hospitals while people are playing cards."

He included Perdue in his attack, noting that she's claimed to be a health care leader and is "second in command" to Easley.

Perdue responded by saying she worked on "physical health, not mental health," and noting that the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the governor.

Paging Bob Orr...

At a debate on WRAL Tuesday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue suddenly channeled former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Orr.

In a discussion about vouchers, she said that the state constitution is "our most sacred state document."

Orr, a constitutional scholar and judge, often spoke highly of the state constitution during his debates.

Of course, he lost.

Coincidentally, Orr was later featured in a brief video clip showing him making oral arguments to overturn the state lottery in a court case.

Update: Orr e-mailed Dome to say that the timing was ironic, since Perdue presided over the Senate during the lottery vote, which he argues is unconstitutional.

"The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law will be happy to provide a free pocket size copy of the N.C. Constitution to the Lt. Governor — and any other candidate for public office," he wrote.

Beverly Perdue's primary promise came back tonight.

At a debate on WRAL tonight, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory noted that she pledged to drop all negative ads in her primary against state Treasurer Richard Moore.

Perdue responded by saying the ads were not negative, since they did not attack McCrory's character.

"The treasurer and I were so much alike we had begun to attack each other personally," she said.

McCrory took repeated exception to a Perdue ad that called him "a real danger" to the middle class.

"I think the ad is not a negative ad," she said. "It's not about the mayor, it's about the mayor's policy."

Both candidates said they were not happy about third-party ads from groups such as the Republican Governors Association or the Alliance for North Carolina, but neither would call for them to stop airing.

Perdue said an ad showing her pushing a "status quo" button was "silly" and "kind of funny."

"The thing that bothers me about the ad is that the ... woman who is playing me has such a bad hairdo," she said.

Pat McCrory is making elitism an issue.

At a debate on WRAL tonight, the Republican gubernatorial candidate argued that Democrat Beverly Perdue's views on education are elitist.

He said that her statement that she wants students to aim higher than technical college is elitist.

"I don't look down at plumbers," he said. "I don't look down at mechanics or electricians or people (who) put down my wood floors. These people frankly make more money than I do and they deserve it because they have a greater talent than I do. ... We ought to respect them for learning a skill and a trade."

He charged that Perdue's approach is part of "the elitism that has taken over government."

The fight over offshore drilling continued tonight.

At a debate on WRAL, gubernatorial candidates Pat McCrory and Beverly Perdue continued to fight over whether or not to drill off the coast of North Carolina.

McCrory said he supports it. Perdue said that she wants to hear from scientists before she makes a decision. Neither position was new.

But McCrory used the discussion to attack Perdue as a flip-flopper who is parsing words.

He again argued that Perdue had previously said drilling would not happen on her watch and said her recent statements that she wants to know more about the technology were a political smokescreen.

"The technology didn't change in three weeks," he said.