Moore/Perdue Drama

Richard Moore and Bev Perdue tattled on each other and let a Republican up for reelection this year be the judge.

The result is not surprising, and just another example of how their campaigns are hurting Democratic prospects for this fall by hurling so much mud at each other.

The issue of state employees using taxpayer funded resources for political work has another interesting twist to it:

The audit of computers in Moore's office found "significant evidence of political activity using state resources" by four part-time staff members who also work on Moore's campaign.

This is a common occurrence and by no means unique to the Moore campaign. I don't know whether the Perdue campaign has people in the same situation or not- it certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Still, should people who are campaign staff be able to concurrently double on the candidate's state payroll? I don't think so. It blurs the line too much between campaign work and state work, and the last thing North Carolina's taxpayers need to fund is people doing campaign related work on the state dime. And I hate to say it, but it's not fair to the Republican candidates for Governor who don't have state budgets to keep their campaign folks on.

I know this is just the 'way things have always been.' But they shouldn't be that way. And I'm sorry the issue of blurring lines between campaign work and state work had to come to the fore because of the Democratic candidates for Governor telling on each other, but it might be a good issue for the Legislature to address this summer.