McCrory, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, said that as governor he would issue an executive order allowing "safe, technologically sound" oil drilling.

"Too many of our elected officials simply reject the possibility of offshore drilling with scare tactics," he said, according to a statement by his campaign. It singled out his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

McCrory said at a news conference that he recognizes that natural gas and oil exploration off North Carolina's coast would take years to have an effect on the energy market.

"If we're not willing to drill off our own coasts, then where will you drill?" he asked. "Off Venezuela? Off Nigeria? Saudi Arabia? Russia?"

McCrory said anyone who drives daily and opposes drilling is "hypocritical."

"What you're really saying is 'I'm willing to take oil from someplace else except for my own backyard,' " he said.

McCrory said drilling would be just one part of his energy plan. He said he would push for more mass transit across the state as well as more wind, solar and nuclear power and more efficient state buildings.

Perdue issued her own statement later in the day, saying offshore drilling would not be safe.

"North Carolina's coast is in Hurricane Alley and has been called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason," she said.

She also accused McCrory of "walking in lock-step" with President Bush. She said the state should focus on encouraging conservation and alternative energy sources.

Miller blogs on Kenya visit

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, who is in Africa this week as part of an official congressional trip, wrote about his last trip to the continent in his blog recently.

Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, was criticizing GOP presidential candidate John McCain about what it takes to have some foreign relations savvy. Miller, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and the Darfur region of Sudan last summer.

He recalled his visit to a slum in Nairobi and says understanding a region's "music" is vital to understanding foreign relations.

Miller wrote: "The more questions we asked, the more guarded the answers became. Then we walked through the slum. ... As our delegation walked through Kibera, we all asked the same question: How can this be a stable society?"

Hunt's turn to raise money

For years, Kay Hagan helped raise money for former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt's campaigns.

Now Hunt is returning the favor.

Hunt, a former four-term governor, sent an e-mail message Monday -- the last day of the campaign finance reporting period -- urging supporters to ante up for Hagan, a Greensboro state senator who is challenging Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in the U.S. Senate race.

"We all know this race is going to go down to the wire -- even the Republicans have admitted it's going to be competitive," Hunt wrote.

GOP's gripe called strategic

The Greensboro News & Record looked into the state Republican Party's complaint with the Federal Election Commission that Hagan did not properly fill out paperwork on donations jointly made by spouses.

Massie Ritsch, with the Center for Responsive Politics, told the paper that the GOP complaint "appears to be geared more toward getting attention than getting enforcement."

He also said Dole's campaign had similar contributions.

"They are just trying to put their opponents on the defensive for something that happens fairly commonly," Ritsch said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)