Not Gov. Mike Easley. Not former Gov. Jim Hunt. Not former Sen. John Edwards or members of the congressional delegation.

So it was a surprise two years ago when Meek upset the establishment candidate to become party chairman. As the outsiders' candidate, Meek was given a mandate to shake up the state Democratic Party.

Meek, who is up for re-election today, is no longer regarded as the rebel-in-chief. He gets high marks from some Democrats for leading the party through its best election in years, for bridging differences between the traditional power brokers and the more liberal Howard Dean wing, and for proving to be a competent fundraiser.

As a result, Meek is expected to win a second term as chairman when the state Democratic Executive Committee meets at Elon University.

"I think Jerry Meek has done a superb job," said Hunt.

Meek's first term was aided by a national Democratic tide motivated by opposition to the Iraq war. His second act may be more difficult, as he tries find a candidate to unseat Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole and tries to keep the governor's mansion in Democratic hands in 2008.

Meek is a boyish looking 36-year-old Raleigh lawyer, who at 6-foot-8 looks down on nearly everyone he encounters. He has thrown himself into the unpaid position, putting in 60-hour weeks -- thanks in part to the generosity of his employer, trial lawyer Wade Byrd of Fayetteville, a major Democratic donor.

Meek has sought to re-energize and reshape the party.

"The state party had been run as though we were still a one-party state -- a one-party state where Democrats rule," Meek said in an interview in the Goodwin House, the 1903 house a block from the Capitol that serves as party headquarters.

"The idea was that the party should disappear into the background. We now have a two-party state. The party has to be more savvy about how it uses its resources. It needs to be more aggressive. The party, as an institution, has to have its own voice. Because there might be times down the road when we don't have a Democrat in the governor's mansion or we don't have control of the General Assembly."

Several changes

Meek said he sought to change the party in several respects:

* From a top-down party run by governors to one more responsive to activists. The party has hired three field coordinators, helped counties set up Web pages, stepped up local training on organizing and other skills and instituted monthly conference calls with county chairmen.

* From a patronage-based system to an ideological-based system of organization. "People nowadays don't get involved in the party because they have any expectation of getting an appointment to a position," Meek said. As part of that effort, Meek will push the party to take positions on five or six issues that will be likely be considered by the legislature.

* From a party that relied on older, big donors and traditional business interests to one more attuned to young activists, many of whom engage in politics through the Internet. Meek, for example, used the liberal Web site, www.BlueNC.com, to ask party activists who should be recruited to run against Dole.

* From targeting party money primarily in swing districts to spreading some into traditionally Republican counties that the party has tended to ignore.

One such county was Watauga, home to the college town of Boone. Even though registered Republicans outnumber Democrats, the county elected a completely Democratic county board of commissioners and a Democratic sheriff, and helped elect two new Democrats to the legislature.

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