A new ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue attacks Republican Pat McCrory over trash.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain makes his first post-primary trip to North Carolina Monday when he holds a town hall meeting in Wilmington.

McCain will speak at Cape Fear Community College's Schwartz Center. Doors open at noon, Jim Morrill reports.

It will be McCain's first public appearance in the state since May and follows by a week a visit to Greenville by his running mate Sarah Palin.

McCain's wife, Cindy, will be the grand marshall of the Bank of America 600 tomorrow in Concord.

"John McCain is excited about bringing his Country First message to the Tar Heel state on Monday," said spokesman Mario Diaz. "Hardworking families in North Carolina are supporting John McCain and pushing him to victory in November because he has a plan to get our economy back on track by keeping our taxes low and controlling government spending."

McCain's opponent, Democrat Barack Obama, has made three visits to North Carolina in the last two weeks. Polls show a tight race in the state.

Tickets for Monday's event are available at the Wilmington Victory Office starting at noon Saturday.

The New York Times says North Carolina is a toss-up.

The newspaper had previously not included the state in its round-up of battlegrounds and had it leaning towards John McCain on its electoral map, but that changed today: 

North Carolina, a state that is normally is about as red as they get, is being moved into the toss-up column. Mr. Obama has poured tons of money into the state, and is spending a lot of time there, and Republicans are growing increasingly anxious that he might take it away from them. 

Meantime, Congressional Quarterly also moved the state into its "No Clear Favorite" category today.

At the outset, McCain had the edge — the GOP has won 9 out of the past 10 contests — but his comfort margin has evaporated. Obama can count on a large African-American turnout. 

The Cook Political Report, MSNBC's editors, Republican consultant Karl Rove, and editors of The Atlantic Monthly also consider North Carolina a toss-up.  

The Rothenberg Political Report still calls the state "Leans McCain," but his ratings haven't been publicly updated since late September.

A second robocall targets Barack Obama on taxes.

The automated call from John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee features a man named John arguing that Obama and Congressional Democrats will cause "massive tax increases."

"Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats have voted at least 94 times for tax hikes in the last four years, including raising taxes on those making only $42,000 per year," he says. "Now they tell us paying higher taxes is patriotic. They just don't get it."

Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan group checking claims made in the presidential election, found that the 94 votes cited as tax increases are padded, noting that 53 were for budget measures that would not result in any tax change, 23 were against proposed tax cuts and several votes were counted twice.

The "patriotic" line refers to a statement made in mid-September by vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, who noted that Obama's plans call for higher taxes on the wealthy.

"It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut," he said.

As with other joint efforts, the call mentions Congressional Democrats to satisfy federal election requirements.

After the jump, the script.

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Another robocall is targeting Barack Obama in North Carolina.

The automated call from the John McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee argues that the Democratic presidential candidate woud raise taxes and increase spending.

"With the Wall Street bailout, we're simply in way over our heads," says a woman named Lisa in the call. "We cannot afford another $1 trillion in big government bureaucracy, higher taxes and more wasteful spending that our children will have to pay for."

As with other McCain-RNC efforts, the call also mentions Congressional Democrats in order to satisfy federal election rules, but it does not appear to be targeting any particular races here.

After the jump, the script.

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Cindy McCain will be at Lowe's Motor Speedway Saturday.

The wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain will participate in the NASCAR Bank of America 500 in Concord. She will be the "honorary race director."

This will be her third visit to the state. McCain previously attended a fundraiser in Raleigh in mid August and U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' funeral in early July.

She has not given an interview to North Carolina media yet.

Three North Carolina doctors called on John McCain to release his health records.

In a conference call organized by a liberal movie company this afternoon, Dr. Wolfgang Liedtke of Duke University, Dr. Don Richardson of Brevard and Dr. Susan Murphy of Boone said that the Republican presidential candidate needed to share more information about his health.

In late May, about 20 reporters were allowed to look at McCain's records for about three hours.

But Liedtke, a clinical neurologist, said he still had questions about the severity of McCain's skin cancers and his vascular health, based on reports that the Arizona senator takes a daily aspirin to prevent blood clots and Ambien CR for insomnia.

"Somebody who is on Ambien that is not someone you do not want to take the 3 a.m. call because you might not be able to wake them up," he said.

He said Democrat Barack Obama should release all of his records as well, citing concern over the Illinois senator's history of smoking.

Brave New Films, which sponsored the call, has also created videos and a Web site featuring the signatures of 2,872 doctors calling for the records to be released.

A new ad from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole boasts of her record on taxes and criticizes Democratic rival Kay Hagan.

Barack Obama is spending more on ads in North Carolina.

According to the latest figures from the Wisconsin Advertising Project, the Obama campaign spent $1.2 million in N.C. advertising between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4, while John McCain's campaign spent $148,000, Peter St. Onge reports.

That's about an 8-to-1 advantage in spending for Obama.

Nationwide, Obama spent roughly $17.4 million to McCain's $10.8 in the same time period. In 15 states the project labels as "battleground" — including North Carolina — the spending is closer, with Obama at $8.1 million to McCain's $6.5 million.

Of course, any political veteran will tell you money doesn't win elections, but it allows you to get more of your message out, unfiltered, and in Obama's case lets the campaign have a bit more control over how he is introduced to voters.

Obama N.C. campaign spokesman Paul Cox declined to talk about advertising strategy, but he said that Obama's success is due to more than money.

"One of our greatest sources of strength is our grassroots organization," says Cox, pointing to the campaign's 45 offices and 17,000 active volunteers in North Carolina. "We are reaching out to virtually every area of the state. It would be very difficult for the McCain campaign to catch up to us..."

The McCain campaign did not return a call for comment.

Republican voter registration has lagged behind previous election years.

A quick survey of voter registration in North Carolina shows that the number of new GOP voters this year has not increased as much over the past year as it did in the years leading up to the 2000 and 2004 elections.

* From October of 1999 to October of 2000, the number of registered Republicans went from 1,634,983 to 1,765,476 — an eight percent increase.

* From October of 2003 to November of 2004, the number of registered Republicans went from 1,723,633 to 1,903,119 — a 10 percent increase.

* From December of 2007 to this morning, the number of registered Republicans went from 1,919,575 to 1,967,441 — a 2.5 percent increase.

By contrast, the number of Democrats went up four percent in 2000, eight percent in 2004 and 10 percent this year. The number of unaffiliated voters went up 16 percent in 2000 and 2004 and 15 percent this year.

Voter registration will always go up in presidential years, as many voters are only interested in national elections and newcomers often take a while to get into local politics.

But the lag in registration is surely a sign of discontent or disinterest among GOP voters this year.

One caveat: Because of slight differences in the months, the figures are not exactly comparable, but the discrepancy is substantial enough to overcome any minor differences.