A Stretch by McCrory

Pat McCrory raised less than half as much money as Bev Perdue during Q2. His campaign is spinning it as a success, claiming that the total is $190,000 more than Richard Vinroot raised in the same period eight years ago, and $600,000 more than Patrick Ballantine raised in that time four years ago.

It's not even worth making a comparison to four years ago. The Republicans had a serious primary while Mike Easley did not, and the primary was in July.

But the McCrory campaign wants us to be impressed that they raised about 20% more than Vinroot did in the same quarter last time, when the seat was open and both parties had competitive primaries.

That's fine. Let's look at how much Governor Easley raised during that period. The answer is 1.25 million dollars. That means the 2.3 mill Perdue raised in this quarter is 84% more than Easley took in.

Kind of makes the McCrory spin look like grasping for straws.

The polls are pretty darn close right now but I think Perdue will end up with a solid victory this fall, barring a serious change in the state or national political climate. She has a greater financial advantage over McCrory than she did over Richard Moore, and she still blew out Moore. Zach Ambrose doesn't get enough credit for how well run and disciplined Perdue's ship has been, and it's really hard to look back over the last year and see any particularly weak strategic decisions.

When you've got the money advantage and you have a great team that knows how to spend it wisely you're going to be in pretty good shape. If they keep on as they've been doing so far, they should win easily this fall.