Primary push starts for Democrats

The leading candidates for North Carolina governor are learning how to feel the love from their respective parties now that they can no longer be sweet — or sour — on Gov. Bev Perdue.

At the Wake County Democratic Party's annual Valentine fundraiser, 300 activists and elected officials watched a political beauty pageant as three announced candidates walked on the stage at the N.C. Association of Educators headquarters building. The emcee asked Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, former U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge and state Rep. Bill Faison two questions: Why should we fall in love with you, and how will you bring heartbreak to the Republicans come November?

To varying degrees, candidates played along to the theme, but they ultimately kept to talking points of improving education and creating jobs, how Republicans in charge of the legislature have damaged both, and how Democrats need to work to turn back the tide.

"They all have basically the same philosophy of education and jobs, and it's going to be a matter of who can really swing the people to vote for them," said Elaine Williams, 83, of Raleigh. She hadn't decided which Democrat she'll vote for after listening to their answers Friday evening.

A month ago, such questions didn't seem necessary. But the courting began almost as soon as Perdue announced Jan. 26 that she wouldn't seek re-election, creating a rush to fill the vacuum as the May 8 primary quickly approached. Democrats are now sizing up their options and waiting for anyone else to get in the race before the Feb. 29 filing deadline. State Sen. Dan Blue, who is also considering a bid, worked the room Friday night, too.

Across town at a Republican Party event the night before, GOP activists already seemed sold on former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. After winning a tough primary four years ago, McCrory is considered the presumptive nominee this time around, and the cheers of nearly 2,000 GOP activists who listened to him speak at Dorton Arena are an indication. There seems to be a level of comfort with him.

"I can't really say that I see much different about him now than I did four years ago," Cary Town Council member Don Frantz said after McCrory's speech at the Wake County GOP precinct meeting, adding that "he still seems like the ol' Pat to me."

McCrory will now have no rematch with Perdue. Four years ago, Perdue defeated McCrory in the closest election for governor since 1972. McCrory insists Perdue's decision doesn't change his themes of fixing state government and repairing the state's economy.

"It doesn't change our strategy or our message or our goals," McCrory told reporters recently. "Our campaign remains the same, regardless of who our opponent is."

But it's certainly a challenge to criticize Perdue's policies while at the same time not being fixed on a single candidate, at least until after the Democratic primary. For now, he's labeling any of the major Democratic candidates running or still considering getting in as part of the Democratic establishment, including former Gov. Mike Easley. McCrory claims that establishment ran the state deeper into the recession and can't get it out.

All of them "are the same people that have supported the Easley-Perdue policies and the Easley-Perdue culture that is unacceptable for North Carolina's future," McCrory said Thursday night. The crowd gave him standing ovations when he said he would sign into law every idea that Perdue vetoed over the past year and Republicans couldn't override — in particular a bill that requires photo identification to vote.

At the same time, McCrory is addressing broader themes such as public education that could help neutralize Democratic criticisms and attract general election voters in November.

McCrory argues that it is common sense to reward the best teachers with merit pay and to expand vocational education to prepare students for high-paying technical jobs.

"Republicans are for education," he said. "We're just not for the status quo in education."

Back at the Democratic event, Dalton portrayed himself as the most eager and able to take on McCrory.

"Why should you fall in love with my candidacy? Because I can and I will defeat Pat McCrory in November of 2012," Dalton said to a smattering of cheers as some audience members kept chatting with friends over hors d'oeuvres. "We've got to take the state in the right direction."

Faison kept to a variation of the stump speech he has refined over the past six months since he began a quasi-campaign to drum up support for his own jobs plan.

He laid out "three lies" he said the Republicans told during 2011: They wouldn't raise taxes (they did by raising $100 million in fees, Faison says); they had a jobs plan (it doesn't work); and they wouldn't fire any teachers (teachers and assistants have been let go in local districts).

"We've got to have a message, and the message is, 'We can fix this,' " Faison said.

While Etheridge offered harsh words for Republicans on education, too, he highlighted his charm and persistence by spending nearly half of his 21/2 minutes on the stage talking about love. He said Faye, his wife of 46 years, turned him down the first time he asked her for a date.

"I didn't give up and, 46 years later, I'm still working at it," he quipped.