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It would not take much for Republicans to win the state House, where Democrats hold a slim 63-57 margin. But the GOP faces a more difficult task in winning the state Senate, where Democrats hold a 29-21 majority. All legislative seats are up in November.

The House and Senate Republican caucuses plan to meet this week to plot a joint campaign strategy, said state Rep. Paul Stam of Apex.

Republicans also have to worry about their own scandals out of Washington, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others.

But Martha Jenkins of Chapel Hill, president of the Federation of Republican Women, said she doesn't think the Washington scandals cut as deeply as the controversies in Raleigh.

"The public does not care about Abramoff," Jenkins said. "They don't understand it."

But Black doing favors for his fellow optometrists by requiring all new school children to get eye exams is something everyone can understand, she said.

This is a so-called "blue moon" election that occurs in North Carolina every 12 years. Because there are no major statewide races for governor, Senate or president, voter turnout is expected to be low. In 1994, the state's last blue moon election, Republicans won a landslide.

The dividing line

Republicans spent part of the convention in workshops oiling up their political machinery to turn out the vote. They also plan to raise issues that will mobilize their conservative base.

Speaker after speaker denounced same-sex marriages, and the proposed platform sharply condemned homosexuality.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones of Farmville held up an enlarged copy of a page from a book for elementary school students, called "King and Kings," that deals with same-sex marriages. Jones said many parents would find such material inappropriate and that he is sponsoring legislation that would require states that receive federal school funds to set up parental committees to review books available in the schools.

"This is what separates us from the other party," Jones said.

Jones said that the book was on the list of books approved by the state Department of Public Instruction and that at least one school system, New Hanover County, had made the book available in its library.

There seemed to be few public notes of discord at the convention. Much of the business was conducted behind closed doors.

"We have emerged from some difficult primaries," Blount said. "We have emerged a stronger party."

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