news-record.com

RALEIGH (AP) - As the race for North Carolina governor headed toward the homestretch, new ads Wednesday accused Republican Pat McCrory of fostering regional discord and used the voice of Democrat Beverly Perdue's former primary rival to criticize her.

With 13 days until Election Day and the first week of early voting under way, Perdue's campaign ad portrays McCrory, Charlotte's mayor, as being interested only in helping his city at the expense of the rest of the state, particularly on road construction.

"Don't let Pat McCrory divide North Carolina," the ad's narrator says. "He's not for all of us."

Also Wednesday, the Republican Governors Association unveiled another TV commercial with footage from a debate between Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore that reinforces the image of Perdue, the lieutenant governor, as a political insider.

In the University of North Carolina Television debate in January, Moore called Perdue "someone who has led the go-along get-along club in Raleigh for 20 years."

Moore endorsed Perdue after the May primary, but he's barely raised his voice in support beyond an e-mail.

The race stands to become the most competitive governor's election in North Carolina in 35 years.

Partisan polls for weeks have shown the election too close to call. Libertarian Mike Munger is also running.

Perdue's ad begins with a cartoon-like oversized image of Charlotte's skyline rising from within an outline of the state.

"This must be how Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory sees North Carolina," the narrator says.

The ad accuses McCrory of saying money should be taken away from rural highways and questioning whether roads should be paved in rural North Carolina. Perdue's campaign offered newspaper articles over the past decade to back up the ad.

McCrory said in an interview that Perdue was misleading the public and fabricating accusations against him: "I never said that and I don't believe that."

He said it's true he claimed Charlotte was getting "ripped off" on transportation rules, as the ad says.

But McCrory and other mayors have been critical for years of a funding formula for road-paving that they said hurts metropolitan areas, where a disproportionate amount of the traffic is.

McCrory said if he is elected the state Department of Transportation would base road-building decisions on several factors, including congestion, that would be evaluated objectively.

Perdue's ad is airing in three markets - none of them Charlotte. That's not surprising, according to McCrory, who accuses Perdue of fashioning her message depending on which part of the state she visits.

"I'm giving the same consistent message across the state," McCrory said.

Perdue's campaign spokesman David Kochman said McCrory's the one who is divisive.

"The point is he has a track record of pitting different parts of the state against each other," Kochman said.

The Republican governors' group has spent more than $3 million on advertising for the race, calling Perdue "Status Quo Bev" and saying she would back more taxes and policies that would keep unemployment high.

The GOP ad also tries to link Perdue with former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black, who is in federal prison on a corruption conviction.

The two were in the Legislature together. Perdue has never been accused of crimes.

Kochman said the GOP ad used "desperate attacks that were discredited long ago," and said Moore recognizes that Perdue "is the one candidate who will stand up for North Carolina's families."

The Perdue campaign also has tried to connect McCrory to Black, pointing to a 1999 public access TV show hosted by McCrory in which he called Black - a guest - his "personal friend" and optometrist. McCrory called the connection ridiculous.