When she officially made public her plans to run for governor last October – joined by family, friends and supporters at a barbecue rally in her hometown of New Bern – Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue said she wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It's been more than seven months since Perdue made the announcement that set the table for what pundits predicted would be a "bruising and expensive primary fight" between the lieutenant governor and her top Democratic primary competition, N.C. State Treasurer Richard Moore.

Nash County resident Dennis Nielsen also is vying for the Democratic nomination, but polls list him as a longshot to win on Tuesday.

With only a couple of days remaining before Election Day – the top two candidates having spent a combined $15 million amounting to seven months' worth of jabs and counter-jabs between Moore and Perdue – the race has fit the bill.

But Perdue, doing her best to explain away recent attacks made by Moore, said she wishes the race would have been different.

"I certainly didn't expect this," Perdue said in between campaign stops during a Telegram interview. "(This has) been one of the most negative campaigns I've ever seen and the ads are harsh."

Perdue was referring to television and radio advertisements run by Moore in recent weeks that question her record on civil rights issues; that suggest she has supported statewide tuition increases; that accuse her of peddling Confederate flag memorabilia; and that question whether or not she can be trusted.

The ads for the most part are factually accurate, Perdue admitted. But they are also misleading, she said.

Moore doesn't think so.

"I'm very pleased with the race we've run," Moore said over the phone Wednesday. "I think we can be proud of our campaign."

With Perdue maintaining a 5- to 10-point lead in most polls, Moore unleashed his fiercest series of ads last week, which directly call into question Perdue's dedication to serving the black community – traditionally one of her stronger bases of support.

In one 30-second TV clip, Moore highlights a 1987 legislative session in which Perdue voted against a bill intended to battle hate crimes.

"Some decisions say a lot about character," the narrator says in the ad. "Like the time Bev Perdue voted against tougher laws to investigate hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan."

The ad references the KKK three times while cycling through pictures of Perdue.

It is true that as a member of the N.C. House of Representatives in the late 1980s, Perdue was one of only two Democrats to vote against a bill that authorized the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate possible hate crimes without being called in by local law enforcement.

But Perdue said she was outraged when she saw the commercial, calling the ad "misleading and offensive." Perdue pointed to her record as a civil rights advocate and said the 1987 incident was the result of a clerical error on her part – a simple "misvote," she said.

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt told reporters days after the ad first ran that he was disappointed with Moore's tactics.

However, Moore, who claims to be close friends with Hunt, has not backed down.

"I don't understand how someone's record is not relevant," Moore said. "I don't think anything we've said has been a negative attack. If we point out that someone says this but voted another way, that's relevant.

"The point is, the lieutenant governor took a recorded vote in the General Assembly in May of 1987 for which she has offered no explanation. There is no such thing as a misvote. Anyone who has ever served in the General Assembly knows that."

Although she has pledged to run a "positive campaign" during the last month of the race, Perdue is not entirely innocent. During the first six months of the campaign, Perdue regularly ran TV ads that attacked Moore's character and linked him with major Wall Street investors.

Although he contends that a few of the ads were inaccurate, Moore said he wasn't upset with her strategy.

"I don't mind the so-called negative attacks as long as they are accurate and factual," Moore said. "Say what you want to say, but you better be speaking the truth. This is a long job interview and it's important to examine the record very closely. I thought that was what a political race was about."

With the clock slowly ticking toward Election Day, Moore said he hopes undecided voters take one last look at the record, and then vote for him.

"Anyone who says they know who is going to win this race is not making that statement based on fact," Moore said. "The undecideds will decide which one of us are going to win this race."

Perdue on the other hand, admitting that the race has worn on her, said she is ready to move forward.

"Oh, you know I'm ready to go," Perdue said eagerly. "I'm always ready. I'm counting the days until Tuesday. And then after we win Tuesday, we go into the fall really prepared and ready to go. I believe you're looking at your next governor of North Carolina."