A survey by Public Policy Polling showed Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue with 38 percent of likely voters in the Democratic primary, followed by State Treasurer Richard Moore with 37 percent.

Using automated calls March 29 and 30, the Democratic firm surveyed 1,100 likely Democratic primary voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Meanwhile, a new ad from Moore has Perdue, who has mostly stuck to forums that don't allow a lot of interaction between candidates, ready to debate.

Perdue wants a statewide audience for the debate, in which she wants to confront "sleazy attack ads," according to a campaign news release.

The Moore campaign welcomed the news.

"We are pleased that Lt. Gov. Perdue has finally decided to accept a real debate with meaningful exchanges between the candidates on any topic," Moore spokeswoman Julie White said in e-mail.

Hagan still leads Neal

The PPP survey also found that Kay Hagan continues to lead the pack in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.

Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, was the choice of 19 percent. Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill investment banker, was the favorite of 11 percent of those surveyed.

But the majority of those surveyed --58 percent -- remained undecided.

Obama well ahead

The same poll found that Sen. Barack Obama continues to enjoy a strong lead in North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary.

It found that Obama was the choice of 54 percent, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the favorite of 36 percent.

Obama endorsements?

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson is still the only North Carolina congressman supporting Obama, but Butterfield expects other endorsements this week.

"There have been substantial discussions between the Obama campaign and the other six [Democrats]," Butterfield said.

Butterfield said a report in the Wall Street Journal that all seven North Carolina House Democrats were prepared to back Obama was "not true."

Ads fight FDA control

Reynolds American has introduced a television campaign in North Carolina against tobacco regulation by the FDA.

The ad, featuring a man attempting to spin plates on top of sticks, says giving the responsibility of tobacco regulation to the FDA would be "adding to the plate" of an already busy agency.

It asks viewers to call their member of Congress and tell the representative not to vote for such regulation.

Reynolds American, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, has run similar ads before. In 2007, Reynolds and Philip Morris combined to spend $10 million in efforts to defeat an Oregon cigarette tax that would have funded children's health care. The bill did not pass.

Hunt tries state panel

After losing his final appeal in state court, Lee Wayne Hunt --who says he was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for for the 1986 shooting deaths of Roland and Lisa Matthews in Fayetteville -- has submitted his case to the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, said Rich Rosen, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill handling the case.

The commission was established in 2006 to review credible claims of innocence in North Carolina.

"60 Minutes" featured Hunt's case because it is one of hundreds nationwide in which prosecutors used a faulty bullet analysis to help win a conviction. Additionally, Hunt's co-defendant confessed to being the sole killer -- a confession that remained secret until the man died and his lawyer disclosed it last year.

If Hunt's case is accepted and heard by the eight-member commission, it could send the case before a three-judge panel that has the authority to clear Hunt.

(Correspondent Sam Wineka contributed to this report. )