Joel Craig Raupe says that BlueNC is actually a latecomer to blogging.

Raupe, an administrative assistant to House Republican Leader Paul Stam, says that conservative blogs at the national level took off much earlier than BlueNC's 2006 start.

That's one reason he thinks there is no statewide conservative equivalent, since North Carolina's Republicans already get their fill at sites like Townhall, Redstate and Free Republic.

He also said the state's Republican Party is more fractured — between old-school mountain Republicans and newer transplants in the Triangle and elsewhere — and holds fewer local offices. Both make it harder to create a statewide collective like BlueNC.

There are a few conservative blogs, however. Raupe contributes to N.C. Republican Roundtable and regularly reads Carter Wrenn's posts on Talking About Politics.

Raupe also said that influential Republican legislators read BlueNC to see what issues voters are interested in.

"If Republicans are going to win an election here, they have to get a sizable percentage of the Democratic vote," he said. "That vote isn’t necessarily reached on BlueNC, but the people who influence that vote read it."