CHARLOTTE, NC - Governor Bev Perdue says she's not running for a second term. Even though she traveled to Charlotte a lot, talking job growth, she faced a tough re-election campaign. Low approval ratings didn't help.

Now that Perdue is out, local political leaders might see an opportunity.

While Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts says she doesn't have plans to run for governor, a laugh comes out when it's pointed out she's also not ruling it out.

"There are a lot of people I think who are known state wide and would be terrific candidates," said Roberts.

As a leading Democratic leader in our area, Roberts embraces Perdue's desire to make education funding a top priority.

In announcing her desire to not run for governor again, Perdue said campaigning would have made it hard to craft a bipartisan solution to the problem of improving public education in the state.

"I'm going to work with her over the next year to try to bring our education system back to where it needs to be," said Roberts.

Perdue planned to fund public education with a sales tax hike. But that campaign issue came at a time when her poll numbers were dropping.

"I suspect her poll numbers being as bad as they were, that her campaign staff told her it was nearly impossible for her to win re-election," said UNC Charlotte Political Science Professor Eric Heberlig.

Governor Perdue also entered the race with some baggage. Three top aides from her 2008 campaign have been indicted for campaign finance violations. Even though she hasn't been personally implicated in any wrongdoing, one GOP political consultant says the issue didn't help.

"If she were to be indicted and if she were still to be running," said Lawrence Shaheen, "it would do such damage to the Democratic party that they would not only lose the governorship, but probably would have sweeping loses with the Presidency as well as the House and Senate.

Shaheen also said that whoever the Democratic nominee is, the Fall campaign may be more about President Obama vs the Republican candidate. The most likely person based on current poll numbers is former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

"As long as Pat McCrory is able to put together a ground game that can compete with Barack Obama, we'll see the Republicans be very successful in North Carolina," said Shaheen.

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx says he's having conversations with friends and family about running for Governor.  While it would be tough to make it to the general election given all the attention this race is getting, a current Charlotte mayor against a former one would give the Queen City more political attention than it's already getting this year.

Spokesperson for Pat McCrory Brian Nick says he'll make an announcement about running for governor next week. For now, McCrory is working on what the campaign focus will be.  "Focused on his own message of fixing a broken government and fixing the economy."

Nick also added that while this announcement wasn't a surprise, the campaign team believed Perdue would have been a tough opponent because she had the most money in hand and had the power of incumbency.