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.”

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer says people don’t trust Gov. Beverly Perdue in her proposal to raise sales taxes temporarily.

Fetzer said at a news conference Thursday that Perdue has no credibility on taxes.

He says Perdue presided over the Democratic-led Senate as lieutenant governor when it approved a sales tax increase in 2001 that was supposed to last only two years. A quarter-penny of that tax is now permanent.

Perdue suggested earlier this week that lawmakers approve a one-cent sales tax increase that would last 13 months to help deal with a large budget gap and protect education and other vital services.

The GOP says the gap is exaggerated and no new taxes are needed.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina’s new Republican Party head says Democrats should postpone a fundraiser next week until after a state budget is approved or they should consider the contributions tainted.

State GOP chairman Tom Fetzer said Wednesday he event honoring legislative Democrats comes at a time of high interest for anyone who does business with state government, which is controlled by Democrats.

The fundraiser for the North Carolina Democratic Party is next Tuesday. Fetzer said the fundraiser shouldn’t be held at a time when businesses and individuals across the state are trying to avoid the impact of budget cuts or higher taxes.

Spokesmen for Gov. Beverly Perdue and Democrats in the General Assembly did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina Republicans picked former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer on Saturday to marshal the state GOP’s message, manpower and money leading up to elections next year headlined by a U.S. Senate race.

Fetzer beat Lee County Commissioner Chad Adams to become state GOP chairman on the second ballot after an initial round narrowed the four candidates. Adams bowed out when it seemed clear Fetzer would win, and the state Republican convention proclaimed Fetzer the winner without completing the votes cast by about 1,600 delegates.

The election was hotly contested as the party tries to rebuild in the wake of disappointing election cycles in 2006 and 2008.

Since 2006, Republicans have lost their majority in the state’s congressional delegation. In 2008, Sen. Elizabeth Dole was soundly first time since 1976 with Barack Obama’s victory. Growth in Republican voter registration lagged behind Democrats and independents.

Fetzer, 54, was endorsed by U.S. Reps. Sue Myrick and Patrick McHenry, former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth, and former Gov. Jim Holshouser.

He stressed that he was a proven fundraiser, had the influence to recruit the best Republican candidates, and was an experienced grassroots campaigner.

Fetzer worked with former U.S. Sens. Jesse Helms and John East, and served as an assistant cabinet member in former Gov. Jim Martin’s administration before being elected to the first of three two-year terms as mayor of Raleigh in 1993. He also ran a high-end GOP political consulting firm the past five years.

“If we mean to end the Democrats’ domination of our state’s politics for over a century, let it begin here,” Fetzer said in accepting his nomination Saturday. “We are leaving here today united – one team, one goal.”

Adams, 42, presented himself as the upstart running against a failed Republican Party bureaucracy in Raleigh. He was on leave from his job at the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Raleigh.

“The state chairman must come from a volunteer background in order to understand how to run this party,” he said. “The Republican Party will never be a party to contend with until it realizes it starts at the precinct level and works its way up.”

Former Guilford County GOP chairman Marcus Kindley and Bill Randall, a retired Navy veteran from Wake Forest, fell out after the first round of balloting.

Former Duplin County GOP chairman Dale Rankin said he came to the convention planning to vote for Kindley, whose ideas he heard fleshed out during frequent appearances on a Wilmington talk radio station. But after his second choice of Randall bowed out he said he decided to back Fetzer.

“I just felt like between the two of them he just had the most experience,” Rankin said.

A candidate for chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party has sued a radio show host and a company that owns Wilmington radio stations for libel.
     
Tom Fetzer said Tuesday he filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court late Monday to defend and protect his name.
     
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In an e-mail newsletter Friday, Former Congressman and Republican State Chairman Bill Cobey endorsed former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer for Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. 

Cobey, who served in Congress from 1985 until 1987, has long had a close working relationship with Fetzer “and is very familiar with Fetzer’s steadfast values and exceptional record of leadership,” the e-mail said.
 
“Tom Fetzer’s tenure as Mayor of Raleigh was the absolute best model of conservative principles being applied in a government leadership role that I have ever seen,” Cobey stated.  “Tom’s record of enacting the principles of limited government and low taxes into public policy is a direct reflection of his leadership, fundraising prowess and ability to effectively communicate our conservative message.  These are exactly the characteristics we need in our new NCGOP Chairman.”
 
According to the newsletter:

“Bill Cobey served as State Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party during its most successful years of the past decade, from mid-1999 until mid-2003.  During those years, two Republican U.S. Senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, were elected to open Senate seats and Republicans gained a brief 61-59 seat majority in the North Carolina House before being robbed of that majority by the corrupt dealings of former Democrat House Speaker Jim Black.
 
“Cobey previously served as Athletic Director at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the administration of former Governor Jim Martin, first as Deputy Secretary of Transportation and then as Secretary of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.  He is regarded as one of North Carolina’s staunchest social and fiscal conservatives.
 
“I welcome Bill Cobey’s support and look forward to his help on the campaign trail,” Fetzer said.  “Like Congressman Cobey, I will always stand up for our conservative values and will work hard to help elect Republicans at all levels of government.  I am honored to have his support.”

WILMINGTON, N.C. – One candidate for North Carolina Republican Party chairman has left the race and thrown his support behind a new candidate.

Former state senator and Wilmington attorney Woody White is withdrawing from the race and said he would support former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer.

White formally announced this bid about six weeks ago. His friend, David Benford, said Wednesday that White decided his family and professional life would be sacrificed too much if he won the job at the state GOP convention in June.

Fetzer told The News & Observer of Raleigh that if he won he would focus on the party’s conservative roots and improve fundraising efforts.

Other candidates include Wake County chairman David Robinson, former Guilford County chairman Marcus Kindley and former Lee County commissioner Chad Adams.