Wednesday's tone suggested the fall campaign might contrast sharply with the largely positive campaigns each candidate ran in the primary. McCrory received attacks more than he launched them over the past few months, and many voters picked Perdue for her pledge to run a positive campaign after early attacks.
McCrory tried to display unity among an often fractious Republican Party, with two of his three defeated opponents by his side as he heads into the fall election.
State Treasurer Richard Moore, who lost to Perdue, was not invited to a morning Democratic event. A Perdue spokesman said it was because the appearance was an endorsement of Perdue by Gov. Mike Easley.
McCrory also reinforced the moderate image that his campaign hopes to project to the state's growing urban and suburban population. He dispatched an abortion question with two clipped sentences while speaking at length about schools, jobs and reforming government.
"He's kind of outlining his game plan, doing it very broadly," said Elon University political analyst Hunter Bacot, who watched a live broadcast of McCrory's noon news conference, "being able to take some jabs at the opposition at no costs" because the candidates are new nominees.
Perdue wouldn't rule out extending her no-negative-campaigning pledge, calling it the "framework" for her fall campaign, but she said it was too early to lock in a strategy.
"My personality went back to being Bev. My enthusiasm came back when we stopped being negative," she said. "I was at my best doing that."
Here are how some of the contrasts played out between news conferences and interviews, raising the curtain on the campaign's first act:
Perdue: "This race is going to be decided by which candidate is the best for the middle class of North Carolina."
McCrory: "We've got to stop this division, dividing people, whether the east, the Piedmont or the west or middle class, poor or wealthy."
He said he wouldn't offer free community college tuition for high school graduates, as Perdue has pledged.
McCrory: "Nothing is free. The teachers aren't going to work for free. The building's not free. The textbook's aren't free. I'm going to tell the truth. What I'm going to do is put together an education program that tries to get people jobs."
Perdue: "Perhaps those people would have said the same thing in the early 1900s when somebody said we should have free public schools. (Free tuition) is giving (students) a promise that if they do their part they won't be locked out of the American dream because their mom and dad don't have the money."
McCrory painted Perdue as insulated, emphasizing that he wanted lots of debates and was answering a steady string of questions from reporters. Perdue answered three questions at her appearance and then conducted interviews later in the day.
Perdue didn't characterize how her opponent operates Wednesday, but talked more about her agenda for the campaign.
Jack Hawke, McCrory's strategist, said the campaign will try to win enough votes in Democrats' eastern base to minimize their likely win there and boost the Republican strength in the west. They'll battle for the Interstate 85 corridor, especially suburbs that in recent years have filled with moderate Republicans from the Northeast and Midwest who worry about schools and roads more than guns or gay marriage.
"(McCrory) doesn't look like an old-style politician," Hawke said. "Those Republicans who have moved here from out of state -- Pat will appeal to them."
Perdue said in considering a positive-only campaign she watched the Republican Party's controversial attack ad against both Perdue and Moore that featured the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
"It was just harsh," she said. "Their attack machine has already begun, so I'm not going to unilaterally sit here and say I'll just be attacked."
