The worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted.

Beverly Perdue was starting to draw blood by linking Richard Moore to the Randy Parton fiasco.

Then The N&O got a copy of an email from one of her fundraisers soliciting $20,000 from the Parton crowd.

It’s easy to say somebody should have seen this coming. As in:

“All right, Team Perdue, huddle up. We’re going to put Moore in bed with Randy Parton. Let’s make sure our hands are clean. We don’t need any blowback.”

Or maybe somebody in the campaign should have realized that the fundraiser, Thomas Betts of Rocky Mount, might be dipping in the Parton well.

Or maybe the finance director and the media guru should share a cup of coffee now and then.

Or maybe it’s time people in politics learn that their emails could show up on the front page of The N&O.

But in a campaign it’s hard to know what every one of your supporters is doing. Sometimes, you’re afraid to ask.

This hurts the Perdue campaign three ways:

• Whenever she brings up Parton, Moore has an easy reply: “Beverly, you tried to raise money from Randy Parton for YOUR campaign.”

• Betts was a member of the Board of Transportation. Which gives gas to Moore’s argument that board members should not raise campaign money.

• Her fundraising gets hurt just as her campaign is scrambling to match Moore’s millions of dollars in family money.

Perdue’s TV ads are good. But she has yet to get off defense. And her campaign looks snakebit.

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