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Americans for Prosperity is spending $130,000 to send a half million mailers touting Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory just days before the election.

The two fliers (see pdf links below) hit two issues that aren't being discussed much on the campaign trail: medical malpractice and public financing of campaigns.

The national party conventions will take the spotlight for the next two weeks -- particularly with Democratic convening in Charlotte -- but another important date is approaching.

The State Board of Elections is scheduled to have absentee ballots ready Sept. 7, two weeks from now and one week from the end of the Democratic convention. And at least one advocacy group already is prepping.

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative nonprofit whose political arm is opposing President Barack Obama, is distributing a flier asking people to mail ballot requests to them with a pre-stamped postcard. ("We'll get it to the Board of Elections," it says.) The card is blank but AFP gives a guide on how to make the request.

"Let your voice be heard first," the flier says. "It's easy, quick, safe and patriotic."

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political group boosting Republican candidate Mitt Romney, is dropping another $900,000 to launch a new TV ad in North Carolina, organizers announced Wednesday.

The minute-long spot -- which is also running in other battleground states -- features people who said they voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 but don't plan to do so again in 2012, citing his record in the White House.

In the four years since he lost the governor's race, Pat McCrory has courted Republican conservatives. It was the group where he showed the most weakness during the 2008 primary; some were skeptical of his support for a sales tax hike to help finance a rapid light rail system in Charlotte.

"In my view, McCrory has a enthusiasm gap with some conservatives, particularly in the east," said Marc Rotterman, a Republican media strategist based in Raleigh. "I think he needs to explain his tenure as mayor of Charlotte, especially when it comes to the sales tax, which was used to fund light rail."

At the state GOP convention in Winston-Salem in 2010, McCrory called for passage of an Arizona-type law against illegal immigrants. In perhaps his biggest move, McCrory formed a close working relationship with the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group with ties to Raleigh businessman Art Pope. With AFP, he toured the state working to defeat President Barack Obama's health care bill. He recorded phone calls to state lawmakers to defeat a bill to extend public financing of elections to some statewide offices, and to pass a voter ID bill. He signed the group's pledge to a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights that would limit spending to inflation and population growth. Read more here.

As we reported earlier, Americans for Prosperity is hitting North Carolina televisions today with a negative advertisement aimed at President Barack Obama. See it above. And read an ABC story fact-checking it here.