As North Carolina Republicans go to the polls to choose their gubernatorial nominee Tuesday, here's a question to ponder: Why has it been nearly a generation since the GOP last elevated someone to the governor's mansion?

Despite the continued growth of the Republican Party from the courthouse to the statehouse, the GOP has lost three governor's races in a row. And none of those races were close.

Jim Gardner lost in 1992, Robin Hayes in 1996 and Richard Vinroot in 2000. If the polls are an accurate barometer, the Republicans may be headed toward another defeat in November, when Democrat Mike Easley will be seeking four more years in office.

Only two Republicans have been elected governor during the past century: Jim Holshouser in 1972 and Jim Martin in 1984. Martin was re-elected in 1988.

Both men were centrists. Holshouser started a statewide kindergarten program, persuaded the legislature to enact the Coastal Area Management Act to help protect the coast, and set up rural health clinics to help people living in areas where there are few doctors.

Martin championed a billion-dollar bond issue for school construction and a 5.25-cent per gallon gas-tax hike to accelerate road construction while also cutting business taxes and promoting government efficiencies.

Holshouser and Martin understood that voters were less interested in conservative ideology and more interested in how state government could improve their lives.

In the late 1980s, Martin hosted a Southern Republican conference in Raleigh. I can remember Martin, a former congressman, saying that although it's OK for Republicans to be against big government in Washington, the GOP must be something much more if it wants to succeed in state capitals.

But since then, the North Carolina GOP has moved to the political right, becoming the party of Jesse Helms and Ronald Reagan. Republican hopefuls must now move so far to the right in the primary that it is difficult to move back to the center in the fall.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been nominating a series of pro-business, pro-death-penalty gubernatorial contenders who have allowed them to capture the political middle.

Republicans used to win elections by courting conservative Democrats. But now Democrats such as Jim Hunt and Easley win by courting moderate suburban Republicans.

The only Republican in the current field of six GOP candidates who fits the Holshouser-Martin mold is George Little, a Southern Pines insurance agent. But if the polls are true, Little's candidacy has not exactly caught fire.

Vinroot started his political career as a Martin Republican when he was Charlotte mayor, but after being outflanked on the right and losing the 1996 gubernatorial primary, he has moved sharply starboard. Bill Cobey, as a member of Martin's Cabinet, championed the expansion of the state parks system. But he is campaigning about his opposition to marriage for same-sex couples.

To regain the governor's mansion, Republicans must learn how to speak to the large group of North Carolina voters in the middle.