Making its marque: the GOP did that in the legislative session. But is it something business will buy into?

• Author: Kinney, David
• Position: THE LEGISLANTIVE SESSION

They came primed, these Republicans, who returned to Raleigh all riled up. Two years after capturing control of the General Assembly, they now had a GOP governor and, even if they hadn't had him, they held veto-proof majorities in each house. Their day, after more than a century of mostly sitting in the shadows, had finally come, and it would be a new day for the state, too, their conservative agenda reshaping social and economic policies. As the session wore on, the primary opposition came not from the rival Democrats inside the Legislative Building but from protesters outside it, their numbers growing each week. Long before adjournment, the question would arise: How would all this--the legislation that was passed, the protests and the arrests it evoked, the national attention that turned on North...