Bert Bennett, who was Governor Hunt’s political godfather, had a characteristically terse way of dismissing election post-mortems: “When you win, you did everything right. When you lose, you did everything wrong.”

But there are always lessons to be learned after campaigns.

Governor:

Bev Perdue won for structural and strategic reasons. For more than 20 years, she built the classic North Carolina Democratic coalition: liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites, business and unions, plus teachers, nurses, environmentalists, military and – most important – Andy Griffith.

Richard Moore is a smart, attractive and rich. He could have been a formidable candidate. But his image often seemed too Republican: money manager, crime fighter and handy guy to have around in a hurricane. He ceded education and health care to Perdue.

She started way ahead. Issue differences were few, so Moore attacked her on character. That can look nasty, and Moore did. Her positive-campaign ploy worked better than I thought – in part because she had already roughed up Moore and her surrogates filled the gap.

Moore and Jay Reiff overreached with the KKK attack. Reiff is one of the best political operatives in America, but bomb-throwers need a steadying hand, and Mac McCorkle and Saul Shorr were on the other side this time.

Republicans:

Thanks to Fred Smith for putting the well-deserved nail in the coffin of campaigns based on 100-county tours and barbeques. Next time, spend some of your millions on ads reaching Triangle voters.

Lieutenant Governor

Walter Dalton surprised a lot of us so-called experts by beating Hampton Dellinger. We thought Dellinger would ride the Obama tide to victory.

But Dellinger never caught on outside the Triangle and Charlotte. And the African-American committees don’t always deliver on their endorsements.

Dalton attacked Dellinger as both a bureaucrat and a lobbyist – a rare two-fer. And how is it again that Hampton was going to bring the troops home from Iraq?

Council of State

Once the preserve of old white men like Thad Eure and Harlan Boyles, this is now the Woman’s Club.

Janet Cowell, Beth Wood and June Atkinson won. Mary Fant Donnan led for Labor Commissioner. Elaine Marshall, Cherie Berry and Atkinson are already on the Council of State.

Why didn’t the insurance industry find a woman to run for Insurance Commissioner?

New Generation

John Edwards left faint political footprints in North Carolina. But his 1998 campaign manager, Josh Stein, represents the rising generation of Democratic leaders. Josh ran a smart and energetic campaign to beat a veteran Democrat, Jack Nichols, for the Wake County Senate seat.

Scandal Watch

Democrats worried about Republicans running against corruption in Raleigh were pleased that Thomas Wright got only 10 percent of the vote in his race and that Mary McAllister lost her House seat in Cumberland County.

McAllister was beaten by a three-time loser who focused on McAllister’s sloppy campaign finance record-keeping and a state auditor’s examination of Operation Sickle Cell, a nonprofit agency she runs.

Going Negative on Yourself

The most novel strategy was Stan Morse winning a Democratic House primary in Wake County after endorsing, campaigning for and voting for his opponent.

Voters obviously concluded that a politician who doesn’t want the job is exactly what they want.

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