Hodges had one of the best-known names in Tar Heel politics. His daddy had been governor and John F. Kennedy's commerce secretary. And the younger Hodges was one of North Carolina's most prominent business executives as chairman of what is now Bank of America in Charlotte.

Not only was Hodges not the Democrats' dragon-slayer, today, he is no longer even a Democrat.

Now living in the suburbs of Phoenix, Hodges recently changed his registration to the Republican Party, and he would like to tell the home folks why.

"People get divorced, change churches, but they won't change political parties," Hodges said.

Hodges said he had been drifting toward the GOP for years. Although he voted for Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, he supported Republicans Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000.

The Clinton presidency was the deciding point, Hodges said.

Hodges said Clinton seemed to be driven by political polls and fund raising rather than by any set of principles. He said Clinton was symptomatic of the Democratic Party as a whole.

"All through the last four years of the Clinton administration, I did see the Democratic Party nationally changing," Hodges said in a recent telephone interview. "I really feel education is being ruined by organized labor. I think the trial lawyers ... are the real backbone of the Democratic Party."

Hodges said that while he once saw the Democratic Party as the vehicle for building a more racially harmonious society, he now views the Republicans as the country's best hope. He said too many African-American leaders are stuck in the racial politics of the past.

"I think affirmative action has not worked," Hodges said.

The defection of Hodges from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party is surprising but not shocking, because many conservative Democrats have moved to the Republican Party since the '60s.

His roots are in the conservative wing of the Democratic Party where his father, a moderate on race, was the last businessman to serve as North Carolina governor (1954-61). He believes that if his father were alive today, he would be a Republican.

The younger Hodges resigned as chairman of North Carolina National Bank to challenge Helms in 1978 -- a year most Democrats thought Helms was vulnerable.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Helms-Hodges race. Hodges led the first primary by a margin of 44 percent to 21 percent but then lost in the runoff to John Ingram, the populist insurance commissioner, in what must still be regarded as one of the biggest political upsets in North Carolina history.

Hodges later served in Jimmy Carter's administration as deputy commerce secretary under Juanita Kreps of Durham, and then served eight months as acting commerce secretary.

He was later the chairman of The National Bank of Washington before moving to New Mexico and Arizona where he became a venture capitalist.

Hodges, who will turn 65 this year, hopes to retire to Chapel Hill in the future. As a Republican.

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