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I wrote last week about the North Carolina Republican Party executive committee giving some thought to a resolution that would close the party's primaries to unaffiliated voters. Click here for that story.

Over the weekend, the committee decided against taking that step by what I was told was a fairly robust margin. Here’s what the Associated Press reported:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican primaries in North Carolina will continue to be open to unaffiliated voters.

GOP spokesman Jordan Shaw says the party's Executive Committee overwhelmingly rejected a resolution that would only allow Republicans to choose the party's nominees.

Voters unaffiliated with a party have been helping pick who runs on the GOP ticket since 1988.

Republicans pushing the change argued party members should be the ones picking their nominees because independents are more inclined to back moderates.

But many state leaders worried changing the rules could damage Republican chances to win elections in 2010.

Unaffiliated voters have been allowed in Democratic primaries since 1996.

It’s worth noting that Rep. Skip Stam and Sen. Phil Berger, the House and Senate Republican leaders, authored a letter opposing the move.

 For a Republican candidate to win an election in North Carolina, the candidate must build a coalition with Unaffiliated voters. Barring Unaffiliated voters from participating in Republican Primaries will make building that coalition more difficult. As the Republican leadership in the State Legislature we’re working hard to win a majorities in 2010, we believe defeating this resolution and keep the Republican Primary open to Unaffiliated voters is critical to our chance of winning a legislative majority.

It sounds like the executive committee bought into that logic.

Related: The N+O's Rob Christensen wrote a column on why enforcing "purity" on the primary would be a bad idea for the GOP. Click here for that.