April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Hillary Clinton will be endorsed by North Carolina Governor Mike Easley tomorrow, one week before the state's presidential primary, Clinton campaign officials said.

``The governor of the great state of North Carolina'' is going to back Clinton in her race against Barack Obama for the party's nomination, Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the New York senator's campaign, said at a fundraiser tonight in Charlotte.

Obama also picked up another superdelegate endorsement today with an announcement that New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman is backing him for the nomination.

Easley will appear with Clinton at an event to make the endorsement, according to a Clinton aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The endorsement would be a major boost for Clinton, who won Pennsylvania's primary April 22. She is trying to halt the momentum of her rival, Obama, an Illinois senator, in the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.

Easley, 58, one of the Democratic Party's superdelegates, has been governor of the state since 2001. He won re-election in 2004 with 56 percent of the vote. Easley had supported former North Carolina Senator John Edwards before he withdrew from the race in January. Calls to his press office weren't returned.

North Carolina Contest

Clinton and Obama campaigned today in North Carolina. The state has 115 pledged delegates at stake in next week's vote, the biggest trove among the remaining contests in the Democratic primary race. An American Research Group Inc. poll released today shows Obama leading there with 52 percent support to Clinton's 42 percent.

Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates, 1,488 to 1,334, according to an unofficial count by the Associated Press.

With Bingaman's endorsement, Obama now leads Clinton in endorsements from their Senate colleagues, while Clinton still holds the edge in total superdelegate commitments, 265 to 240, according to lists provided by both campaigns and public announcements.

Almost 300 superdelegates, party and elected officials who aren't bound by the results of primaries and caucuses, have yet to make commitments. A candidate needs 2,025 to win the nomination.

`New Direction'

Bingaman, 64, a five-term senator, said the country must change course, and Obama ``is best positioned to lead the nation in that new direction.''

Clinton won the Feb. 5 New Mexico primary by 1 percentage point over Obama, gaining 14 pledged delegates to his 12.

While in North Carolina today, Clinton proposed a suspension of the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to ease the burden of energy costs on consumers. She would pay for the tax moratorium by imposing a temporary windfall profits tax on oil companies.

Taxing oil-company profits ``would help to pay for what we need to do to continue to repair and modernize and rebuild our roads,'' while suspending fuel-tax collections ``would give people during the peak driving months of the summer some temporary relief,'' she said in Graham, North Carolina.

She is scheduled to move on tomorrow to Indiana, which also is holding a primary next week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in North Carolina at Echen32@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 28, 2008 19:36 EDT