RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Unaffiliated voters have more influence than ever in North Carolina politics, but some Republican leaders want to keep them away from the GOP primary and let party members choose their own nominees -- preferably more conservative ones.
They've asked state party leaders meeting this weekend in Raleigh to approve a resolution that would limit next May's primary to registered Republicans only.
"We are not attempting to eliminate independents from the process. We absolutely need them," said Bob Pruett of Beaufort, chairman of the 3rd Congressional District committee, who supports the closed primary idea. "But we want to make sure that we have conservative candidates elected in our primaries."
The proposal to shut out the independents, who represent nearly 1.4 million potential votes -- nearly one-quarter of the electorate -- worries some leaders.
"History shows us that the passage of this resolution would not bode well for the goal of a Republican victory in 2010," state party Chairman Tom Fetzer wrote in an e-mail to Executive Committee members.
The Executive Committee, comprising nearly 600 lawmakers, local political chiefs and other GOP notables, will consider the request Saturday. It was adopted at the party convention in June. A simple majority of committee members present usually is required for passage of a resolution.
Many state-level party notables were scrambling late this week to block the measure without offending resolution supporters. Fetzer, who had planned to wait until Saturday to discuss the issue, instead released a letter late Thursday explaining his opposition.
Republicans hope frustrations with policies of President Obama and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue will bolster legislative candidates and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's re-election bid in November 2010.
Opponents of the resolution say unaffiliated voters could be turned off next November if they're kept away from GOP primaries but welcomed by Democrats, who have invited them to vote in their primary since 1996. Unaffiliated voters have been allowed to participate in Republican primaries since 1988.
Fetzer said Republican candidates benefited in the 1994 elections because the GOP welcomed unaffiliated voters at a time when the Democratic primary was still closed.
Local party leaders who back the resolution argue unaffiliateds help moderate candidates. With primary turnout usually low, unaffiliated voters can swing the outcome of an election so that a more moderate candidate wins, according to the resolution.
"Unfortunately there are times when independents are swaying elections to a candidate that is not as conservative as we would like," said Onslow County GOP Chairman Patrick Lamb, identifying moderates as people like John McCain last year and George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, often described as a moderate, won last year's Republican gubernatorial nomination, edging Fred Smith, a favorite of social conservatives.
State law allows an unaffiliated voter to participate in one party primary but not both. A party has until Dec. 1 to tell the State Board of Elections it wants to prevent registered voters without a party from participating in next year's primary.
Nineteen of the 41 states with presidential primaries last year had closed primaries, according to a report from electionline.org.
The number of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina has soared from 608,000 in 1998 to 1.4 million last year. They now comprise almost 23 percent of the state's registered voters.
About 46,200 unaffiliated voters participated in the May 2008 Republican primary, or more than 9 percent of the ballots cast for GOP nomination for governor, according to State Board of Elections data.
But that could underestimate their potential to swing an election, since more than 211,500 unaffiliated voters chose to vote in the Democratic primary, where the presidential nomination between Obama and Hillary Clinton had not been decided. McCain had already sewed up the GOP bid.
With Republicans comprising 32 percent of the state's 6.1 million registered voters, the GOP must attract more independents and conservative Democrats to win statewide elections than the Democrats.
"The reality is the voters who vote in the primary are more likely to vote for our candidates in the fall," said House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake. "I don't believe in shooting myself in the foot."
