What Perdue knew

In her statement, Perdue says, "My team first heard of the personnel matter at the State Party late last year."

"They promptly relayed these rumors to the party officials responsible for handling personnel matters — the Chairman and the party's legal counsel, who were already aware of the issue," the statement continued.

Asked for more detail about what the governor knew last fall, here's what Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella said. 

"The governor was told that a party employee was alleging harassment by the executive director and that the executive director was categorically denying the allegation," the spokesman said. "She was also told that the chairman and legal counsel had launched a process to address the issue in an appropriate manner consistent with applicable law."

"The action she took was to make sure this matter was in the hands of the people responsible for dealing with personnel issues of this nature and to make sure they had a process in place to try to find the truth (remember this was a dispute) and reach a resolution," Farinella added.

"No one knows what actually transpired between the two individuals. There were only accusations and denials but few known facts."

Farinella said the governor "was not aware of the terms of the settlement." 

He also denied rumors that Perdue was briefed on the progress of the case by NC Democratic Party legal counsel John Wallace, who is also legal counsel to Perdue's campaign. 

"That's just baloney," Farinella said. "In fact, [Wallace] never spoke to the governor about this matter. That shouldn’t be a surprise. It is not the job of the governor to micro-manage personnel matters at the party. "