Richard Moore is facing his first campaign crisis. How he responds in the next month could decide whether he’s elected Governor next year.

Carter has blogged before that the State Treasurer is at risk of replacing Jim Black as the new “pay to play” poster boy in Raleigh.

Moore hasn’t done anything illegal. But sometimes acts that are perfectly legal can be politically lethal.

Forbes magazine reported first that Moore had raised bundles of campaign money from Wall Street brokers he allowed to invest the State of North Carolina’s money.

Now The News & Observer has jumped in with its own front-page story: that Moore raised bundles of campaign money from North Carolina firms to whom he gave bond business.

That’s a danger sign for Moore. One story is trouble. Two is a trend. A third could be life-threatening.

Moore’s campaign responded effectively to the first story. But I’ve seen no response to the N&O story.

One problem he has here is that – unlike some political flaps – this one is easy to explain: Moore gave your tax money to people who gave him campaign contributions.

After the Forbes story, one Moore supporter asked whether I thought he should stop taking the money. I said no. It didn’t look worse than what other politicians do.

Now, I might say yes. It may be the only way Moore can stop a damaging deluge of bad press coverage.

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