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RALEIGH — When Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue featured support for embryonic stem cell research in her latest campaign ads, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate raised the profile of an issue close to a Greensboro legislator’s heart.

Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat, has been pushing legislative leaders to take action on stem cells for more than two years.

“To me, it’s the most important issue for the citizens of North Carolina and the nation because you’re talking about longevity of life, quality of life and curing many diseases,” Jones said.

Jones is also talking about a fierce political battleground, where those hoping to move medical science forward clash with those who have religious and ethical concerns about stem cell research that uses human embryos. Those embryos are destroyed in the process, and many view the subject as part of the abortion debate.

Perdue plunged headlong into that debate by featuring a woman with a neurological illness in two of her latest ads. In one, the woman praises Perdue for her support. In another, she asks how Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican candidate, can be “against hope.”

McCrory said that he favors research on adult stem cells but not embryonic stem cells, saying “I don’t think there’s a need” for embryonic stem cell research. He also called Perdue’s ad inappropriate and questioned why she was raising the issue now.

“I’ve never heard her bring up this subject in her eight years as lieutenant governor,” McCrory said.

But Jones said Perdue did take an interest in the issue when it was before the legislature. Jones led a study committee that sought to raise awareness of the issue.

Draft legislation that came from that committee would have put tax money into embryonic stem cell research and laid down guidelines for how it should be conducted. By the time it left the House, the bill would have provided only a framework for stem cell research, but backers say it would have moved their cause forward.

When that bill moved to the Senate, where the lieutenant governor presides, Jones said Perdue reached out.

“She called me directly and she had her staff work with me,” Jones said. “Her office was the first one to call when it (the bill) crossed over to the Senate.”

Perdue said she favors putting money from the state’s tobacco settlement, handled through the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, in to embryonic stem cell research.

That idea is similar to one drafted by Sen. Walter Dalton, which never made it into the state budget.

“The research they can do there today could save you or your child tomorrow,” Perdue said, adding that scientists say the best chance for quick progress on a number of diseases is offered by stem cell research.

“You know these stem cells are donated by families, otherwise they’d be discarded. And it just seems to me...that it’s a really good use for science,” Perdue said.

As for the ad, Perdue calls it “powerful” and said that it speaks to “what’s possible.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com