05/04/2008

By GARY D. ROBERTSON and MIKE BAKER  / Associated Press

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue headed east. Former president Bill Clinton went west. In between, dozens of candidates on the ballot in Tuesday's primary election campaigned Sunday, looking for those last undecided voters who could make the difference between a win and a loss.

"Anytime you get anybody from Raleigh this far east is a real thrill," said Hertford Mayor Sid Eley. And although Perdue, a Democratic candidate for governor, hails from New Bern, Eley said, "Bev Perdue is a local girl."

Perdue's stop in Hertford was one of three she made in northeastern North Carolina communities on Sunday. Though they're small towns, all are home to among the most reliable Democratic voters in the state. Perdue reminded the roughly 400 people at the town's 250th anniversary celebration that she was one of them — an eastern North Carolina resident who made a decision more than 30 years ago to move from Florida to New Bern.

"I can't think of a better decision I ever made," she said.

Later Sunday, she and rival for the nomination, State Treasurer Richard Moore, planned to campaign in Durham.

Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton campaigned in western North Carolina for his wife's presidential bid, where he promoted Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan to suspend the federal gasoline tax this summer.

"All these people in the other campaign and the press that are attacking her over this, there's not a single one of them having to choose every day between filling up their gas tank to go to work to put food on the table and being able to pay their medical bills," Bill Clinton said.

Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP nominee, have both proposed suspending the tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day as a way of providing relief from record gasoline prices for consumers.

Obama opposes the plan, saying it would save a mere 30 cents a day and cost thousands of construction jobs. Money from the tax goes into a federal fund that pays for highway projects such as bridge and road construction.

Bill Clinton planned stops later Sunday across western North Carolina, and will begin a swing Monday through the eastern part of the state. Clinton herself will visit Greenville and High Point on Monday.

Obama's wife Michelle plans events Monday in Fayetteville and Charlotte. And not to be outdone, McCain will speak at a meeting of Charlotte's chamber of commerce on Monday, followed by a speech Tuesday at Wake Forest University.

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Associated Press writer Mike Baker reported from Marion.