Faison antes up

Democratic Rep. Bill Faison has said he won't challenge Gov. Bev Perdue in the upcoming primary. But he's loaned his campaign half a million dollars.

Posted 5:36 p.m. Jan 4, 2012 — Updated 11:14 p.m. Jan 4, 2012

Laura Leslie

It seems to be the season for non-campaign gubernatorial campaigns.

Much has been made of Republican Pat McCrory's undeclared candidacy through most of 2011. Now, one of Perdue's fellow Democrats seems to be taking a page from the same book.

Rep. Bill Faison said in September he would not challenge Gov. Bev Perdue to a primary.

But in November, he suggested Perdue would not run for re-election in 2012 as a probe into her 2008 campaign finances dragged on. Faison said he was confident the governor would "do the right thing and step aside," presumably to clear the way for him to run.

Perdue's campaign responded unequivocally that she intends to run for re-election in 2012.

Today, Faison held a press conference to roll out what certainly appears to be a campaign platform. He also said he had loaned his campaign $500,000 of his own money.

That's a lot more money than his House re-election campaign would require. For comparison's sake, at this point in the last election cycle, Faison had loaned himself $17,000.

Still, he dodged questions about whether the loan signals an upcoming challenge to Perdue.

"I believe that if you're gonna be involved in this process, you need to be committed to it. And I'm committed to seeing that we win back the House, and that we keep the governor's mansion blue," Faison said.

Watch the whole press conference at right.

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