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.

Sarah Palin will make her first campaign appearance in North Carolina Tuesday night with a rally at East Carolina University in Greenville.

Palin is scheduled to speak at the Road to Victory rally at the school's Minges Coliseum. It will be the first visit to North Carolina by a member of the GOP ticket since last month's convention, Jim Morrill reports.

And, other than a recent stop in Florida, it will be the Alaska governor's first campaign stop in the Southeast.

"There's been a lot of excitement in North Carolina about the historic Republican ticket," GOP spokesman Mario Diaz said late Wednesday night. "Gov. Palin is excited about the stop, and she looks forward to bringing her message of reform to North Carolinians."

Palin's stop will come just before running mate John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama square off for their second debate Tuesday night in Nashville. Doors at the coliseum open at 5 p.m.

She will also appear at a fundraiser on Oct. 16 in Greensboro. 

John McCain is staffing up in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate has moved his first staffers into his Raleigh campaign office in the basement of the state Republican Party headquarters.

Ryan Tronovitzch, who previously worked for U.S. Rep. David Davis just over the border in Tennessee, is now working for a Victory 2008, joint effort by the Republican Party and the McCain campaign.

He will be assisting Mario Diaz, who had been working the entire Southeast from an office in Tallahassee, Fla.

He told Dome this afternoon that the office now has three people.

"We're just getting staffed up," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated Tronovitzch's position.

A spokesman for John McCain says he is investing in North Carolina.

In an e-mail to Dome, spokesman Mario Diaz responded to a Barack Obama conference call yesterday by noting that the state has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976. 

"We are investing significant time, resources, and manpower to ensure North Carolina stays red in November," he wrote. "Ultimately elections come down to the issues most important to North Carolina families. Hardworking families are looking for a candidate who will keep their taxes low, create jobs, strengthen our national security, and work to find innovative solutions to reduce the prices at the pump."

He also argued that McCain's record of "putting country first" contrasted with Obama's "partisanship and lack of experience."

The presidential campaigns are reaching out to North Carolina in different ways.

In recent weeks, the campaigns of both presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have been e-mailing and calling Dome in earnest.

For now, McCain is more active, but Obama may be putting more resources here.

Starting in late June, McCain's regional communications director, Mario Diaz, began contacting Dome with press releases and suggestions for stories.

A former TV anchor from the Tampa area, Diaz works on the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida out of a Tallahassee office.  

Obama's campaign was in regular contact with Dome leading up to the May 6 primary, though communications fell off after the circus left town. 

It's still not ramped back to the previous level — if it ever will — but in mid-July, Obama named Marc Farinella state director for his campaign.

Farinella knows North Carolina well, having worked for Erskine Bowles' Senate bid in 2002 and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's re-election in 2004.