Seeking the farm vote

Beverly Perdue claims membership in North Carolina’s farming community. Pat McCrory doesn’t.

On Monday, both major candidates for governor spoke to the 38th annual banquet of the N.C. Agribusiness Council and promised support for the agriculture industry, reports David Ingram.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m one of you, because I’m not and neither is my opponent,” said McCrory, a Republican and mayor of Charlotte. But, he added, he will listen to the industry if he’s governor and work with it because its workers “feed me at least three times a day.”

Perdue, a Democrat and lieutenant governor, said she represented farmers in the New Bern area while in the legislature and sat on agriculture committees.

“I actually consider myself part of the agriculture community in North Carolina,” she said. “I’m not a Johnny-come-lately to rural North Carolina, or to agriculture and agribusiness.”

Perdue dropped two names of particular importance to rural parts of the state: the late Jim Graham, a former agriculture commissioner, and Billy Ray Hall of the N.C. Rural Center.

Neither candidate has worked in agriculture. McCrory spent 29 years with Charlotte-based Duke Energy – which sponsored three tables at Monday’s banquet – while Perdue worked in education and health care administration.

Libertarian candidate Mike Munger did not attend the banquet. He is a political scientist, though he does have ties to agribusiness through his sale of timber from land in Chatham County.