Bickering Democrats find merit in Republican arbiter

The two Democratic candidates in the governor's race have turned to an unusual referee to resolve a spat: the Republican state auditor.

In separate letters, staffers for Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore accused each other's campaigns Tuesday of using state resources for political work.

Under state law, state employees can campaign after hours, but they can't do such things as scheduling rallies or making fundraising calls using state computers and telephones.

The dispute has brought a long-simmering primary race to a quick boil -- to the dismay of state Democrats, who fear a bruising primary could hurt the party's chances of extending its 16-year hold on the governor's mansion.

The back-and-forth began Tuesday morning, when Perdue's legal counsel, William Polk, sent Auditor Les Merritt a letter noting that they had received a request for records from someone using a computer in Moore's office.

"While it is every citizen's right to request public records, I am concerned that someone was using state computer resources in the office of the State Treasurer to conduct political campaign opposition research," Polk wrote.

The records, which Perdue released, had been requested in the name of a Michigan resident who is related to a Moore staffer. The same man has also requested records on Perdue from the State Ethics Commission.

Moore said that he would take "appropriate disciplinary action" against his senior adviser, Julie White, who doubles as his deputy campaign manager, although he stressed no laws were broken.

Still, a few hours after Perdue's complaint, Moore's camp fired back with its own letter to Merritt.

Jay Reiff, Moore's campaign manager, interrupted his honeymoon long enough to send a letter asking Merritt to look into Perdue's use of state phones and computers, the state Highway Patrol and her office.

"Numerous political observers have maintained that 'everyone knows she's running for governor' for years now," he said. "Yet she just announced this week that she is opening an official campaign office."

Perdue announced last week that her chief of staff in the lieutenant governor's office, Zach Ambrose, had resigned his state government post to become her campaign manager. Her campaign will officially kick off Oct. 1.

A spokesman for Merritt said the auditor's office would not confirm whether it is looking into either Moore's or Perdue's political work until it finishes an investigation, if there is one. That could be weeks or months, said Chris Mears, director of public affairs.

That means the Democratic dispute could flare again before Election Day, especially if Merritt finds -- as he did in an April 2006 audit of Moore's office -- that state computers were used for campaign activity.

So far, at least one candidate has gained the upper hand: Merritt.

The auditor, who is running for re-election in 2008, has been the target of Democratic attacks on his own ethics in recent months. State Democrats have complained about his side work and his audit of state voter rolls.

Ballard Everett, a Republican political consultant who is not involved in the governor's race but who has worked for Merritt in the past, said the two Democrats essentially just gave the auditor an endorsement by portraying him as an objective outsider.

"That's quite a compliment to Les Merritt," he said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/708740.html