DURHAM - Abby Alger mentioned she was a Republican during a dinner gathering one night. A friend quickly apologized to the rest of the group on her behalf.

The apology was a joke -- sort of. But at the dinner table filled with college students, the message was clear.

"Saying you're a Republican is kind of saying a dirty word," said Alger, a rising senior at Duke.

To Alger, 20, a public policy major from New York, this reflexive recoiling is a result, at least in part, of Republican party doctrine that doesn't ring true to college-age people, even those who may lean to the right on many issues. It is the impetus behind Real World Republicans, a new Web site and blog Alger co-founded to encourage young people to discuss politics outside the echo chamber.

The www.realworldrepublicans.com site went live last week. Alger hopes her target audience -- the 16- to 25-year-olds known as Generation Next -- will use the site to talk about the election, health care, Iraq and other issues. The discussions will be serious, but she doesn't intend them to be lectures. It should be fun, even quirky. The home page features 10 multicolored elephants -- a modern twist on the staid GOP icon.

"We're trying to reach people who don't know they're Republican yet," Alger said. "A lot of young people see the Republican Party as monolithic, where you have to be pro-life or against gay marriage. I think there's room in the party for discussion on these issues."

Alger thinks many people her age have a mishmash of values spanning the political spectrum, voters who can be snared by either major party. She points to a 2007 Pew Research Center for People & The Press study of Generation Next, which found many young people support gay marriage and accept interracial dating, but are also less critical of government regulation of business and are more likely than other generations to support privatization of Social Security. The report, citing other Pew studies, said just 35 percent of these young people identify more with the Republican Party.

Alger was drawn to the Republicans by her belief in limited government. She has found kindred spirits -- other students who, she said, are fiscally conservative but socially liberal. She has a hard time, for example, getting worked up about same-sex marriage.

"Social issues, to us, are not a big deal," she said.

Derek Belcher, a UNC-Chapel Hill senior and chairman of the university's College Republicans, thinks college-age conservatives have a variety of viewpoints. A Web site and blog targeting them makes sense, he said.

"I think there will be a good following," said Belcher, a Havelock native. "The younger generation [is] going to be more progressive. Young people are more likely to not want to conform to the mold."

Alger's use of the Internet to connect to her technology-crazy generation makes sense to Brent Woodcox, communications director for the N.C. Republican Party.

"We have a challenge in this next election to communicate an unchanging message with changing methods," said Woodcox. "The younger generation, more often than not, is online. So getting involved online is a really good idea."

Alger thinks young people are largely attracted to the party's fiscal conservatism and belief in a smaller government. Woodcox said that speaks to a very basic, logical thought process; college students won't be college students forever, and when they graduate, their lives change significantly.

"What people care about is jobs, the economy, health care, the pocketbook issues," he said. "When you start paying your own taxes, you find yourself a lot more conservative than you were before."