GREENVILLE - Republican U.S. Rep. Walter Jones enters his empty congressional district office nearly every Saturday to perform the same solemn ritual.

He turns on doo-wop music, sits at a conference table and begins signing condolence letters to families who have lost loved ones in Iraq.

"My heart aches as I write this letter" they begin. So far, he has signed about 6,700 letters to family members.

It is, Jones said, his "mea culpa to my Lord" for voting to authorize the war in Iraq.

It is not penance, though, that is on the minds of many angry Republicans in the Eastern North Carolina congressional district that Jones has represented since 1995. What they envision is punishment for Jones for turning against a war that touches many in the 3rd Congressional District.

It is why his autographed photographs were stripped off the walls of Cubbie's restaurant in Beaufort this summer. It is why Jones did not receive his customary invitation in July to speak at Harvest Baptist Church in Goldsboro. It is why Democrats are trying to persuade Jones to switch parties.

And it is why Jones might face his most difficult re-election campaign next year.

The disenchanted

Some longtime Republican activists say they are ready to abandon Jones and back his more conservative primary challenger, Joe McLaughlin of Jacksonville.

"I've been aggravated with Walter's stance with some of the liberals that he's hanging out with," said Willie Ray Starling of Goldsboro. "I've been real disappointed in him. I appreciate his stand on Christianity and morals. But I feel like Walter's stances, where he has been in opposition to supporting the troops, has really turned me against him."

Jones, 64, a seven-term congressman from Farmville, is part of Eastern North Carolina's political royalty. His father, Walter Jones Sr., represented Eastern North Carolina in the U.S. House for 26 years. Jones started political life as a conservative Democrat but was elected to Congress as a Republican.

He carved out a reputation as an outspoken social conservative who campaigned for a greater role for Christianity in public life, and against abortion, homosexuality and illegal immigration.

But he is also one of the biggest Southern Republican mavericks -- bucking the Bush administration on a range of issues including free trade agreements and the addition of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients.

But it is Jones' apostasy on the Iraq war that has stirred a political dust storm.

Intense war politics

In only a few congressional districts are the politics of the Iraq war more complicated than in the 3rd District, which includes three military installations: the Marines' Camp Lejeune, Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. More than 200,000 people are connected to those bases -- either active military, civilian employees, military retirees or military dependents. The district voted for President Bush over Democrat John Kerry in 2004 by a 2-1 margin.

The arguments here are intense -- and personal. The war is about friends, neighbors and family.

Jones said he recalls the chilling visit this spring to Johnson Elementary School at Camp Lejeune. After reading a Dr. Seuss story to the children, he took questions. One boy confided to him, "My daddy's not dead yet. My daddy's not dead yet."

McLaughlin, 53, a former Army Ranger who is now a financial planner, said whenever he turns on the TV and sees an old Army buddy from Fort Bragg -- Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, until recently a chief spokesman in Iraq -- Caldwell seems to be speaking personally to him.

"It pierces me to the bone," McLaughlin said at a GOP dinner in Kinston last week. "It's as if he is looking right at me saying, 'Joe, we're over here fighting and dying for a critical struggle. ... It's as if he looking right at me and saying, 'Joe we are doing our part. But what we need is support in Congress.' "

It is personal for Marshall Adame as well. Adame, a Jacksonville neighbor of McLaughlin, is a former Marine who served three years in Iraq as a civilian administrator. One of his sons is serving in Iraq and a second is back in the United States recovering from a wound received in Iraq.

Adame, a Democrat, is also running for Congress. But unlike McLaughlin, he says he thinks it is time to get out of Iraq and says Jones has not done enough to oppose the war.

"I was in Baghdad when my son was wounded," said Adame, a 55-year-old Jacksonville business consultant. "Unlike most parents, I was on the scene. I can't imagine what it must be like for parents to have someone show up at their door."

The primary challenge

But before Jones can face a Democratic challenge from his left, he must fend off a Republican primary challenge from his right.

Interviews last week with Republican leaders across the district suggest Jones could be facing the most difficult challenge of his career.

"Obviously, Walter's stand on the war has not helped him with that constituency related to the military," said Ferrell Blount, a former state GOP chairman from Pitt County. "That is going to be a problem for Walter. Walter is a good friend and a good man. But his views have left the core beliefs of the 3rd District. He is not the Walter Jones we elected in 1994."

Jones has drawn anger, not only because of his anti-war stance but because of the company he is keeping. He showed up at a news conference with liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and greeted war protester Cindy Sheehan. He made the cover of Mother Jones, a liberal magazine.

"He's become a poster boy for the left," McLaughlin said at a GOP dinner at King's restaurant in Kinston. "Walter has a lot of new friends in Washington -- liberals."

Jones says he is the same conservative he was when he first went to Congress as part of the so-called Republican Revolution of 1994. He said he is more committed to limited government than the Bush administration. And he says even Bush is now proposing to withdraw troops from Iraq -- something Jones has been advocating for the past two years.

The possibility of a competitive primary is already attracting outside groups.

The Club for Growth, a Washington-based conservative organization, is considering targeting Jones. The group's political committee is well-known for targeting moderate Republicans, such as Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, whom it calls RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only.

David Keating, the club's executive director, said the group is concerned that Jones has increasingly been supporting pork barrel projects such as $2 million for the Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York.

"We think the incumbent may be vulnerable," Keating said. "His voting record recently has turned surprisingly pro-spending and anti-economic growth."

One national group already involved in the 3rd District race is VoteVets.org, an anti-war group that has previously run ads against such conservative Republicans as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a leading national conservative. Last month, the group began running radio commercials in which retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, praises Jones for his "moral courage."

"We are caught in the middle of a brutal civil war in Iraq without a focused national strategy," Batiste says in the ad. "Congressman Jones is well-informed in challenging those politicians who are are breaking our great Army and Marine Corps."

No plans to switch

Throughout his political career, Jones has frequently been a maverick -- first as a Democratic state legislator in Raleigh and now as a Republican congressman in Washington.

He is on the outs with the Bush White House and the Republican House leadership. Democrats, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, have been courting him.

Jones says he has no plans to switch parties, saying his social conservatism is a better fit in the Republican Party. But he doesn't completely dismiss the idea.

"At this point," Jones said when asked whether he would stay with the GOP. "My strong pro-life position and my strong position on social issues at the national and state level, this party represents those views. But when you get into spending, I've had Republicans say to me there is not a whole difference in the parties."

Jones says the GOP has drifted from the small government philosophy that characterized it in 1995 when Republicans took control of Congress.

He said the views of the 3rd District on the Iraq war have been evolving, just as they have elsewhere in the country. He thinks he has built up a reservoir of good will through his constituent work and social conservatism that will see him through the 2008 election.

Jones says he views himself as more of a populist than a party-line guy. "On some issues my party's right, and on some issues it's wrong," he said. "I don't have blind allegiance. My only allegiance is to my Lord."

(Researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this story.)

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