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http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/427034.html

GOP dissects losses in N.C.
Conservatives aim to build state clout

For North Carolina Republican conservatives, these have been their political wilderness years.
Across the South, there has been a rising GOP tide. But even though North Carolina votes Republican for president and the U.S. Senate, nearly a generation has elapsed since a Republican was elected governor -- Jim Martin in 1988. Full control of the legislature has eluded the GOP for a century.

In no other Southern state have Democrats so dominated state politics.

"It is a travesty that North Carolina is controlled by the Democrats," said U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, at a breakfast Saturday at the N.C. Conservative Leadership Conference.

The organizer was Jack Hawke, a former state GOP chairman who now leads the Civitas Institute, a Raleigh-based conservative organization.

Other sponsors beside Civitas include the John Locke Foundation, the N.C. Family Policy Council, the National Rifle Association and the state Christian Action League.

"There has been a void in leadership in the conservative movement in North Carolina, especially since Sen. Helms retired," said former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer. "We need a new generation of conservative leaders to come forward and accept the mantle."

As if if to capture the old Jesse Helms magic, the conference held one panel discussion called "Helms' Principles" where former aides recalled anecdotes about the man who helped build the modern Republican Party.

Hawke argues that the state Republican Party lacks a strong identity, which hurts it among the many Republicans moving from outside North Carolina into the state's fast-growing suburbs. They may vote for President Bush but not for local Republicans.

The state party "has no issues that people can pick out and say these are Republican issues," Hawke said. "It has no leader that they can pick out and say this is a Republican leader. On the state level, the Republican Party has not done a good job of giving people a reason to associate with Republicans."