The North Carolina Republican Party went into the July 20, 2004 primaries divided. It emerged divided.

Three trends shaped the outcomes within the GOP nomination contests for federal and state office on Election Day. In the primary for governor, North Carolina Republicans showed no clear preference among the leading candidates, giving former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot and former NC Senate minority leader Patrick Ballantine of Wilmington nearly the same number of votes statewide, working out to about 30 percent each, and gave nearly as many votes to former US Rep. Bill Cobey (27 percent). Ballantine and Vinroot will now meet in an August 17 runoff.

In the congressional races, Republicans also failed to pick clear winners in the most-watched nominations fights in the 5th and 10th districts, where open seats drew crowded fields of candidates and attracted millions of dollars in campaign cash from inside and outside North Carolina. The longest ballot here was in the Triad’s 5th District, where Winston-Salem City Councilman Vernon Robinson and retiring NC Sen. Virginia Foxx were the top vote-getters – but not by much – in this often-nasty campaign and will meet in the August 17 runoff. In the 10th District, which comprises Hickory and much of the Catawba Valley, longtime Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman will face a runoff with NC Rep. Patrick McHenry, whose well-orchestrated grassroots effort and non-Hickory address helped him pull a stunning upset of the better-financed, business-establishment candidates in the race, George Moretz and Sandy Lyons. McHenry innovative use of volunteers and new technologies has already gotten national attention, and may typify the emergence of a new style of congressional politics for the 21st century.

Finally, another fissure within the Republican Party, arguably a more serious and pervasive one in legislative districts across the state, had House Co-Speaker Richard Morgan and his allies, some incumbents and some challengers, facing an array of opposing Republicans, against some already in office and some newcomers. Out of Republican primaries in 18 House Districts where this dynamic appeared to be in play, the anti-Morgan forces prevailed by a nearly two-to-one margin. Among the Morgan allies losing their seats were Reps. Michael Gorman (3), Keith Williams (14), Rex Baker (91), and perhaps most surprisingly David Miner (36), who vastly outspent his Republican opponent Nelson Dollar in his Cary district. Meanwhile, several conservatives targeted by Morgan survived their primary challenges, including Wake Reps. Sam Ellis and Russell Capps.

However, Morgan allies Julia Howard and Carolyn Justice did win their nomination battles, and Morgan himself survived a shockingly close race against Peggy Crutchfield in his Moore County district. His margin of only 249 votes will be hard to spin as a vindication given that the fact that he raised and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more than his neophyte opponent in a county he has represented for many terms.

As the election returns trickled in Tuesday night, some Democrats were already expressing their satisfaction with the Republicans’ continued fissures. Of course, the Democratic Party will see some runoffs next month, as well, including a statewide contest for state superintendent of public instruction between Marshall Stewart and June Atkinson. And there was evidence of some racial fault-lines in the balloting in some races, such as the failed comeback attempt by former Sen. Fountain Odom against Charlotte City Councilman Malcolm Graham in Mecklenburg’s new District 40 and former Rep. Shelly Willingham’s top finish in the Eastern NC’s 3rd District, where Sen. Clark Jenkins was forced into a runoff.

But clearly Gov. Mike Easley’s campaign is pleased with the prospect of having no clear Republican challenger until August 18, and Democrats hope that lingering resentment along the Morgan/anti-Morgan divide will help boost their chances to regain full control of the North Carolina House and hold off a challenge to their majority in the North Carolina Senate.

So, have Republicans shot themselves in their foot this year? Or have they engaged in a spirited but necessary set of contests to find some new political standard-bearers and leadership? The coming weeks and months of campaigning, fundraising, advertising, and organizing will help to answer these questions.

Hood is publisher of Carolina Journal.