http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/fight_begins_for_legislative_controlState GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer said today that conditions are ripe for Republicans to win control of the North Carolina legislature next year for the first time since 1898.
Fetzer said the $1 billion in tax increases passed by the legislature combined with a spate of Democratic scandals in Raleigh, a backlash against Democratic health care proposals and historic mid-term election trends bode well for the GOP, reports Rob Christensen.
"We feel very confident that we going to have a Republican majority in the House and the Senate in 2010," Fetzer said at a news conference at state Republican headquarters.
Republicans need to pick up 10 seats in the 120-seat House, and six seats in the 50-seat Senate to win control.
But House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, said Democrats were well positioned to expand their majority in the House.
"We are very optimistic we are going to pick up some seats," Hackney said in an interview. "We think we will pick up seven and get to 75."