Still worried about North Carolina's swing to the right, the New York Times is scouring for evidence that the state's conservative rollback of taxes and regulations is backfiring on Republicans. The political infighting made the front page of Saturday's Times, which typically buries state political news on the back pages: "Move to Center Divides G.O.P. in N. Carolina."

Reporter Richard Fausset set the scene from Raleigh, attempting to show a GOP that's gone too far and is now frantically scrabbling back to the center. State Speaker of the House Thom Tillis is trying to win a U.S. Senate seat, yet finds himself (in the paper's loaded language) "caught between the hard-right face of the last session and his likely need to appeal to more moderate voters..."