Richard Moore's cable bill

Richard Moore had a hefty cable bill last month.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate owed Time Warner Cable more than $25,000 for TV ads that aired in mid-January. During the same time period, rival Beverly Perdue, spent only around $4,000 on basic cable advertising, according to public records.

The candidates' advertising buys also included local TV stations, so their overall spending is different. No Republican candidate bought air time with Time Warner during that period.

Moore was unique in his broad use of basic cable. His ads aired on 14 different channels, including CNN, MSNBC, The Food Network, The History Channel, USA and TNT.

Some of the buys — such as BET and Lifetime — could be attempts to reach black voters and women, two groups in which he trails Perdue in the polls. He also aired 14 ads on Fox News, which attracts a more conservative audience.

By contrast, Perdue focused her attention on news channels, airing ads only on CNN and MSNBC. 

There was one exception for Perdue: A single ad, which cost $1,764, on the USA channel which ran once between 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 17. According to this schedule, back-to-back reruns of "Law & Order" aired during that time.

Perdue spokesman David Kochman said the campaign focused on news programming for cable ads because the audience was more likely to be politically active. He would not comment on the USA ad.