APEX, N.C. — Undeterred by the attention showered on Democrats running in Tuesday's primary, Republican governors candidates Fred Smith and Pat McCrory worked town festivals and held campaign rallies Saturday, looking to energize supporters and win over undecided voters.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Fred Smith and I'm running for governor," Smith said frequently as he stopped passers-by in between hot dog and craft stands in downtown Apex, offering campaign stickers. Many politely accepted along crowded Salem Street on a hot spring day, but a few voters stopped to hear more from the state senator from Johnston County.

"I'm looking for a little more on the environmental stuff because we Republicans don't get to see that a whole lot. Do you've got that covered too?" asked Darcy Holley, 36, of Apex, who operates a retaining wall business.

"I'm a developer and believe it or not, I'm a pretty environmental developer," Smith responded.

Smith and McCrory, the Charlotte mayor, were campaigning the morning after Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton grabbed the attention of North Carolina voters with speeches at a huge Democratic party fundraiser in Raleigh. Obama on Saturday headed to Indiana, which also holds its primary on Tuesday, while Clinton spent the day campaigning in North Carolina with Gov. Mike Easley.

"This election in Tuesday is not just about Obama and Hillary," McCrory said while campaigning in Moore County, where he urged the couple hundred people at a political cookout not let the Democrats' dominance of the airwaves discourage them. "There are more important things on the ballot."

Obama and Clinton and their surrogates have campaigned across the state in the past week, filling television with commercials and phone lines with get-out-the-vote calls. But local Republican activists didn't seem too worried about the high interest in Democratic politics.

"The overall atmosphere, no matter how you're affiliated, has been exciting," said Joy Paul, secretary of the Johnston County GOP. "I honestly don't see anything negative."

Even before the extended presidential primary arrived in North Carolina, the Democratic governors primary between Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore was getting top billing. Perdue and Moore have spent more than $16 million on their race, with the winner likely to emerge from Tuesday's race as the general election front-runner.

The Republican race has become a close affair, with polls showing Smith coming from behind in recent weeks to get close or even with McCrory, the seven-term mayor who joined the campaign only a few months ago. The two could end up in an June 24 runoff if the leading candidate doesn't receive more than 40 percent of the vote.

Smith sounded confident Saturday morning as he shook hands at Smithfield's Ham & Yam Festival. He said his 100-county barbecue tour and other slow-but-steady strategies inoculated his campaign from losing momentum during the avalanche of coverage on the Democratic races.

"I've sort of been like the ant, which has been gathering and working in the grass-roots a long time," Smith said as children rode ponies and waited for the festival's pig races to begin. "I feel like those who have waited until the last minute to get their message out, because of Obama and Clinton, it's crowded out."

McCrory has been running television ads for a couple of months and is banking on a strong showing in counties in the Charlotte media market and decent numbers elsewhere in the Piedmont to win the primary. Campaigning in Asheboro, he told a crowd of about 50 people about the time he refereed an Atlantic Coast Conference all-star basketball game.

"I had the courage to call traveling on Michael Jordan," McCrory said. "And I think we need to have a governor who makes the tough calls."

He won over previously undecided voter Melissa Jones, 34, of Asheboro, who was swayed by McCrory's tough talk on illegal immigration.

"My mother doesn't have health insurance, can't pay bills and can't do anything about it," Jones said. "And they get everything handed to them."

McCrory was headed later to an event in Moore County. Former Gov. Jim Holshouser, the first GOP governor elected in the 20th century in 1972, endorsed McCrory and was campaigning with him Saturday.

Smith and McCrory have been sniping at each other in their party's debates and on the radio in recent days. Smith and McCrory accuse the other of cost overruns - McCrory with Charlotte's light rail project and Smith with state road construction projects. Each has said the accusations are misleading or untrue.

Republican candidates Bill Graham and Bob Orr planned little or no campaign events this weekend. Both have polled in single digits in recent surveys. Sampson County pecan grower Elbie Powers is also running.