CARY -- They were the young bucks who built the struggling Republican Party in North Carolina in the 1960s and '70s. Today they are the graying old men of the Grand Old Party.

They gathered Saturday night to recall the days when to be a Republican office seeker in the Democratic-dominated state was to attract funny looks.

They joked and traded political war stories, but most of all expressed wonder at the political transformation that has taken place not only in North Carolina but across the South.

"We have more Republicans in this room tonight than we had from Raleigh to the coast in 1964," former Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner, 70, of Rocky Mount told the 450 people attending a $125-per-plate Hall of Fame party fund-raiser at the Embassy Suites hotel.

Sharing a platform onstage were former senators Jesse Helms, 82, Lauch Faircloth, 75, and Jim Broyhill, 76. Also there were former governors Jim Holshouser, 69, and Jim Martin, 67.

"I could sit and listen to these old guys talk for hours," quipped Martin, who was governor from 1985 to 1993.

In 1966, the state's voter registration was 82 percent Democrat and 18 percent Republican. Today it is 49 percent Democrat and 35 percent Republican, with the rest unaffiliated or registered to other parties.

Helms talked about his days as a WRAL-TV editorialist, when listeners would write and complain that he was "nothing but a gol-darned Republican," or words to that effect.

"I never wrote one and said, 'No, I ain't,' " Helms said. Helms was a Democrat at the time but switched his registration in 1970 and two years later was elected the state's first Republican senator of the 20th century.

Faircloth was forced to explain a remark he once made when he was a Democrat. He said the only two things he never understood were electricity and Republicans. In retaliation, the GOP administration in Raleigh took his name off a state ferry boat.

But the old political warriors did not want to talk just about the past.

Martin cautioned the party leaders that the Democrats would try to redraw new legislative lines to block Republican gains when the General Assembly meets this month. But Martin said any such Democratic effort would fail because of the courts and the popularity of President Bush.

"We'll have President Bush at the top of the ticket," Martin said. "Let them try to redistrict him."

Martin wasn't the only one talking about the future.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said she looked forward to having U.S. Rep. Richard Burr as her Senate seatmate next year, so that her vote would not be canceled out as it is with Democratic Sen. John Edwards.

"Richard would actually be there to vote," Dole said, a reference to Edwards' absences as he campaigns for president.

Burr said the Republicans need to replace Democratic Gov. Mike Easley next year.

"We desperately need a governor ... someone committed to solving problems and not just simply looking for someone to blame," Burr said.

The major gubernatorial candidates worked the hallways and hosted hospitality suites.

The party conducted a straw poll for governor. Former GOP Chairman Bill Cobey won the straw poll with 51.9 percent. State Sen. Patrick Ballantine came in second with 31.6 percent, followed by Southern Pines insurance agent George Little with 6.8 percent, former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot with 4 percent, state Sen. Fern Shubert with 3.7 percent and Davie County Commissioner Dan Barrett with 1.7 percent.

Earlier in the day, the state executive committee elected Jim Cain, a Raleigh attorney and former president of the Carolina Hurricanes, to be one of North Carolina's three members of the Republican National Committee.