GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) – The lunchtime event at Milano’s Italian Restaurant in Gastonia provided all the usual flavor found at state Republican Party gatherings in recent years.

It didn’t come from the lasagna, chicken parmigiana and manicotti ordered by the two dozen officials and party activists gathered in a back banquet room.

It began with the state GOP chairman chiding state Democrats, followed by the usual complaints from party faithful in attendance about how the Democratic Party has run most of state government for 100 years.

But new chairman Tom Fetzer tried to turn the griping into something constructive.

“We can either spend our time talking about how unfairly the Democratic majority governs, or we can become a majority and do a better job of governing ourselves,” Fetzer told the crowd between bites of spaghetti.

Sensing an electoral opening after Democrats drew a budget that raised taxes, GOP leaders are already talking up legislative elections, even though those won’t occur until November 2010.

Fetzer and Republican legislative leaders are wrapping up a 12-city “Budget Tour” to places like Gastonia that began after the General Assembly closed a bruising seven-month session Aug. 11 in which lawmakers cast tough votes on spending and taxes. They’re talking about campaign fundraising and targeting Democrats in competitive districts.

The state GOP struggled in the 2006 and 2008 elections as Democrats expanded and retained their majorities in the House and Senate. The 2010 elections take on greater importance because the majority party in each chamber will have the power to draw favorable legislative boundaries for the next decade based on new census figures.

“Those are probably the worst cycles for Republicans that we’ve seen in a long, long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “The political winds are at least, early on it seems … shifting in another direction.”

It will take more than a strong breeze to break Democrats, who hold a 30-20 Senate lead and a 68-52 House advantage. Democrats have held or shared control of both chambers continuously for more than 100 years, save for four years in the 1990s when the GOP led the House.

Fetzer argued at tour stops that Democratic lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue made all the wrong choices in response to the recession and need to be held accountable. Democrats voted for and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a budget that raised taxes by $990 million this year and that Fetzer argued failed to protect the public schools.

The budget “raises taxes at precisely the wrong time,” said Fetzer, a former Raleigh mayor and political consultant elected chairman in June.

Democrats defended the $19 billion budget and said the higher taxes, while painful, are temporary and helped prevent deeper cuts to education, social services and public health.

“It’s easy to sit back and criticize,” said House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, calling Republican complaints the “kind of typical rhetoric that’s going on right now. It’s a little earlier than normal.”

There are 13 districts in the House – including Holliman’s – and eight in the Senate – that Republicans hope to take from Democrats next year. To win, Fetzer said, Republicans will aim to match Democratic incumbents in fundraising.

The task will be daunting. The state Democratic Party gave $4.3 million to candidates and political committees during the 2007-08 election cycle, compared to $801,000 by the state Republican Party, according to campaign finance reports.

“It is very difficult to go out and raise money because people interested in legislative action … they’re not going to give with a long-term vision. They give for the next session,” said Jack Hawke, state GOP chairman from 1987 to 1995. “That leaves Republicans with no natural base to go raise money.”

Fetzer has asked party regulars to give $1 a day to party campaign coffers. He said state business leaders who have given more to Democrats recently must be persuaded to shift to Republicans.

In Gastonia, Republicans clapped when Fetzer said the party would fully fund the challenger to Democratic Sen. David Hoyle, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

“We’ve been outspent year after year after year and election and election after election. And Tom is focused on getting us the money so we can equip our troops,” Gaston County Republican Party chairman Cliff Priest said.

Hoyle, now in his ninth term, has won every two years because he said he’s received support from whom he calls mainstream GOP voters and doesn’t seem fazed about a new effort to unseat him.

“I’ve had them sending money against me nine times,” Hoyle said in an interview. “It’s nothing new, but different faces.”

Fetzer told the Gastonia group it will be painful if Republicans don’t knock off Hoyle and other Democrats next year, particularly with redistricting to follow.

“Winners get to govern. Losers go home and grumble,” he said. “And if we don’t win in 2010 we’re going to have 10 years of grumbling.”