RALEIGH, N.C. – Susan Bryant, the Republican Party chair in North Carolina's second largest county, stood alone on Friday in defense of her comment to an annual gathering of GOP stalwarts in which she referred to Democratic Governor Bev Perdue as "the dumbest governor in America."
 
Pat McCrory, Perdue's 2008 Republican challenger and his party's likely nominee this year said in a statement he didn't agree with Bryant and would not condone her remarks, according to campaign spokesman Brian Nick.
 
Perdue announced in January that she would not run for re-election this year.
 
After McCrory had given his speech and departed the Wake County Republican Party's precinct organizational meeting Thursday night at Dorton Arena, Chairwoman Susan Bryant attempted to rally the GOP base ahead of the 2012 election cycle.
 
Bryant told the crowd "we still have the dumbest governor in America" in Perdue and that the only thing "that she's done right is deciding not to run."
 
Democrats were quick to condemn the remarks and called on McCrory to distance himself from them as well, which he quickly did.
 
"North Carolinians do not condone these kind of personal attacks," Perdue spokesman Marc Farinella wrote in an email, adding that "Bryant's remarks do not contribute anything to the public dialogue."
 
But Bryant doubled-down, defending her quip through a county party spokesman who said her remark "was political [not] personal."
 
"She's going to stand by the quote," her spokesman said.