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North Carolina’s two candidates for governor began the final week of the campaign a study in contrasts.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, the state’s lieutenant governor, was on the attack and raising money, hoping a final surge would allow him to close what the polls suggest is a wide gap with his GOP opponent. Meanwhile, a buoyant Republican Pat McCrory, the former Charlotte mayor, hit a diner and a local GOP headquarters and warned his supporters against overconfidence. Full story here.

More political headlines:

--Gov. Bev Perdue is sitting on $1.2 million as Democrat Walter Dalton faces a 6-to-1 cash deficit to Republican Pat McCrory

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will be in Raleigh on Wednesday for a fundraiser at the home of real estate developer John Kane.

The event, which costs between $2,500 and $15,000, follows a fundraiser in Charlotte this past Wednesday with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is Ryan's first fundraiser in North Carolina since being named as the vice presidential pick.

The new Republican ticket also made a campaign swing together last Sunday in High Point and Mooresville.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will return to Charlotte on Aug. 15 for a lunch-time fundraiser at the Duke Mansion. It'll be Romney's third visit since April to the city that'll host the Democratic National Convention in September.

A Republican source also confirmed Thursday that Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, will embark on a multi-state bus tour Aug. 10 that will include stops in North Carolina, a battleground state in the presidential race.

The final leg of the bus tour is expected to end up in Florida, also a swing state in November and the site of the GOP convention in late August.

--Tim Funk

A look inside the campaign finance reports filed this week shows why Republican Pat McCrory is dominating the money race: Walter Dalton started the general election with nothing in the bank.

The Democratic candidate's primary contest with Bob Etheridge and Bill Faison cost him just about everything in his campaign account. Dalton entered 2012 with $590,000 in the bank and raised $887,000 in the primary. But he spent roughly $1.5 million to win his party's nomination.

At the end, Dalton's campaign spent what it took to win, including about $670,000 for a television commercial and another approximately $70,000 for direct mailings to voters. In the same amount of time, he raised just $230,000.

Pat McCrory's campaign reports it raised more than $1 million since the start of the year -- and the fundraising period is still incomplete.

McCrory, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, started the year with $2 million in the bank. So his roughly $3 million total (minus expenses) gives him a huge advantage against his Democratic rivals, who are trying to raise cash to beat each other in the May 8 primary.

Pat McCrory continues his big fundraising push, attracting another major GOP name to an event next month in Durham.

Former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes will headline the March 3 event at the Washington Duke Inn. The cheapest ticket costs $100 with sponsors paying $4,000 and host at $1,000. Among the co-sponsors and hosts: C.T. Moorman, Robert and Barry Taylor, Nick Tennyson, Chris Mumma and Bill Cobey.

Other Republicans who previously helped McCrory raise money: Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.

As the end of the year approaches, so too does the end of the six-month fundraising term -- which means one final dash for Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue and GOP challenger Pat McCrory to raise cash.

The next financial report is arguably the most important going forward -- showing whether McCrory can close Perdue's fundraising advantage and indicating if Perdue can weather of a storm of indictments surrounding her campaign and defecting donors.

One storyline is becoming more clear: expect a big showing from McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte who lost to Perdue in 2008. He held a fundraiser in Greensboro on Monday featuring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an all-star in GOP political circles. The total haul: $275,000.

Expect a similar bounty from a fundraiser next week in Charlotte with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Tickets cost between $1,000 and $4,000 to attend.

The big-name governors are an indication that the national party is getting behind McCrory, who has consistently been leading Perdue in the polls.