Richard Moore’s reaction to his Forbes hit was fast and aggressive. Beverly Perdue’s campaign needs to wake up.

This was much like the Hillary-Obama exchange over David Geffen: an early look at which campaign is on its game and which isn’t.

Coverage of the Forbes article clearly hurt Moore, the State Treasurer and would-be Governor. And will continue to hurt him. But he and his campaign showed an ability to block a punch and land a counterpunch to Lieutenant Governor Perdue.

Here was the Moore strategy:

• Discredit Forbes. The magazine criticized Moore for taking campaign money from investment houses that do business with his office. Moore’s counterattack: Forbes doesn’t like me because I’m standing up for the little guy against Wall Street. A nice pivot, albeit one that won’t totally free him of the pay-for-play smell.

• Attack Perdue for “attack politics.” Moore consultant Jay Reiff sent out an email criticizing Perdue because her finance director Peter Reichard sent out an email calling attention to the Forbes piece. That was a mistake by Perdue’s campaign. They could have spread the dirt with a bit more subtlety.

• Slime Perdue. Reiff’s email highlighted Perdue’s own “pay to play” record, citing highways, rest homes and the Ferry Division.

• Defend your record. Moore quickly held a press briefing to boast about his investment record. And he got good coverage.

All in all, Moore made a strong recovery from a hard hit. He’ll still pay a price for his Wall Street fundraising. But he proved he can take a punch – and land one.

Give this round to him and Reiff. And watch what Perdue’s team does now.

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