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The legislature has gone home, but the state Republican Party wants to make sure people remember to stay mad.

Republican Party chairman Tom Fetzer has hit the road on a "statewide budget tour."

"For too long now, liberal Democrats in the State Legislature have not been held accountable for their mismanagement of the public trust," Fetzer said in a statement.

Democrats have dominated the legislature for much of the last 100 years. But next year, when all 170 seats in the legislature are up for election, Republicans are thinking they really have an issue: the state budget.

"To raise taxes $990 million dollars during a recession is unthinkable; but to claim it was done to save education is unconscionable," Fetzer said.

The tour will swing into districts the GOP thinks it can win.

On Monday, Fetzer and GOP leaders Rep. Paul Stam of Apex and Sen. Phil Berger of Eden, went to Burlington to put some heat on Sen. Tony Foriest, who helped write the education budget. Tuesday stops included Lexington and Salisbury.

N.C.'S STATE: Something was rotten at N.C. State. After a series of articles in the N&O revealed the involvement of former Gov. Mike Easley in the hiring of his wife, the provost and the chancellor resigned and Mary Easley was fired. (The chairman of the board of trustees had already left.) Though an interim chancellor has already been named, the university is not out of the woods yet. Expect further turmoil.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: The N.C. Republican Party met in Raleigh to plan a comeback. Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory was scheduled to outline his path to victory this morning, while delegates debated whether candidates should pledge loyalty to the state platform, whether primaries should be closed and — in what's turned out to be the nastiest race in years — who should be the party's new chairman.

SENATE BUZZ: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr says he's not thinking about which Democrat might run against him next year. He's the only one, apparently. The chattering classes spent more time this week wondering whether Secretary of State Elaine Marshall or U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre might make another run for it, while Iraq veteran Cal Cunningham and Obama fundraiser Kenneth Lewis kept trying to build buzz.

IN OTHER NEWS: The fight over the state budget continued, with House Democratic budget writers calling for $784 million in new taxes. ... A House committee passed a bill to allow billboard companies to cut down more trees. ... Elon University police detective Dan Ingle was chosen by Alamance County Republicans to replace former Rep. Cary Allred.