Perdue started her political career in the 1980s, serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives. She then served 5 terms in the North Carolina Senate before she was elected as the 32nd Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina.
Perdue was elected to the office of Governor of North Carolina in 2008 against then Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory by a 50-46 margin, and is highly expected to face McCrory again in her bid for a second term in 2012.
Her 2008 gubernatorial campaign went under State and Federal investigation, and was fined $30,000, but it was concluded that the Perdue Committee did not intentionally violate the law.
When Hillary Clinton dropped out of the 2008 presidential race The New York Times mentioned Perdue as a potential future presidential candidate.
Personal life
Beverly Marlene Moore was born in Grundy, Virginia to Alfred P. and Irene Morefield Moore. Her father was a coal miner who became a utility CEO. She earned a B.A. degree in history in 1969 from the University of Kentucky, as well as a M.Ed. degree in community college administration in 1974 and a Ph.D., degree in Education Administration in 1976, both from the University of Florida.
She is an Episcopalian. Before entering politics, she worked as a hospital administrator and consultant.
Perdue lives in Chapel Hill and formerly lived in New Bern. She has been married to Bob Eaves since 1997 and has two grown sons, Garrett (b. 1976) and Emmett (b. 1979), from her previous marriage to Gary Perdue, which lasted from 1970 to 1994. She continues to use "Perdue" as her last name, using her current married name as her middle name.
Political career
Perdue, a Democrat, served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1987 to 1991, and in the North Carolina Senate from 1991 to 2001. During her last three terms in the Senate, she served as a senior budget writer and was the first woman to hold this position. While she was in office, the General Assembly increased teacher pay and passed Governor Hunt's Excellent Schools Act and Smart Start. Additionally, she led the debate that created North Carolina's Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
In 2000, she defeated Republican Betsy Cochrane for the lieutenant governor's seat, becoming North Carolina's first female lieutenant governor; she was re-elected to a second term in 2004.[6] As lieutenant governor, Perdue's most significant act was casting the tie-breaking vote that established the North Carolina Education Lottery.
2008 gubernatorial election
North Carolina gubernatorial election, 2008
Perdue announced her 2008 candidacy for governor on October 1, 2007 at her hometown, New Bern, North Carolina. On October 22, 2007, pro-choice Emily's List endorsed her campaign.On May 6, 2008, Perdue won the Democratic nomination for Governor, defeating State Treasurer Richard H. Moore and Dennis Nielsen.
Perdue raised $15 million for the general election and ran attack ads against her Republican opponent, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, criticizing him for not being tough enough on illegal immigration. Despite a "national Democratic tide" and Perdue's fundraising edge, in the general election campaign McCrory led Perdue at first; Perdue slowly gained with help from Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate. Perdue and McCrory remained close, with the two often polling in a statistical tie in what was the closest race for governor in the nation. Perdue ran slightly behind her opponent in polls released the week before the election. Pundits speculated that Perdue was hurt by current Democratic Governor Mike Easley's decreasing popularity and McCrory's efforts to tag her as part of corruption in Raleigh: consultants mentioned Perdue's "difficulty of being the candidate of continuity in a change election."
While McCrory received the endorsement of most major newspapers in the state (which typically endorse Democrats), Perdue received the endorsement of actor and director Andy Griffith, who filmed a campaign ad on her behalf.
Perdue defeated McCrory on November 4, 2008, 50.3 % to 46.9 %.
State & Federal criminal investigation
On October 22, 2010, Perdue revealed that her 2008 campaign was under State and Federal investigation. Less than a month after Perdue revealed her own investigation, her predecessor, Mike Easley, became the first North Carolina governor to admit to a felony in a deal that halted a lengthy federal investigation.
Federal authorities looked into 41 confirmed private flights Perdue took dating back to 2005, which her campaign did not report until 2009. The state Board of Elections in August fined Perdue's campaign $30,000 for the flights aboard campaign donors' planes but concluded that the Perdue Committee did not intentionally violate the law. Perdue and representatives of her campaign have maintained that there was never any intent to conceal the flights, some of which might have violated state limits on contributions to candidates. Rather, they have said, the campaign had "a flawed system for recording flights," and the trips were not discovered until an audit of campaign records was conducted in 2009.
Political positions
Perdue's Senate record followed the lines of the Democratic caucus.[6] As a member of the Board of Community Colleges, she voted against allowing illegal immigrants to attend the schools even if they graduated from a North Carolina high school. She had previously said she would admit every high school graduate to community college tuition-free. In late February and early March 2009, she announced that $87 million from the educational lottery would be used to ensure there is money available for the state's day-to-day operations.
In her first use of the veto power, Gov. Perdue vetoed a bill that would have made various documents that lawmakers use in drafting legislation confidential.
She also vetoed a bill that would have required voters to show photo ID before casting their ballots.
In September 2011, she called for the temporary suspension of Congressional elections in order to deal with the nation's economic crisis.
Controversies
On September 27, 2011, Perdue promoted the idea of suspending congressional elections. She told the Cary Rotary Club, "You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election." Her press secretary later said that the statement was intended as a joke. Audio of the speech was subsequently released.
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