North Carolina will matter after all.

The tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination makes it almost a mathematical certainty that neither nominee will have been selected by the May 6 primary here.

To a lesser degree, the Republican race could also still be active by then, although John McCain leads Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee by a substantial margin.

Hillary Clinton now has 832 to Barack Obama's 821 delegates, not counting superdelegates. Either needs 2,025 to win the nomination. Even if one candidate won all of the delegates available before May 6, it would not be possible to reach the total necessary.

The attention could bring campaign ads, robocalls and visits by the candidates. (Char-O)