The chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party came to Hilton Head Island on Tuesday to tell a group of party loyalists that despite losing some high-profile elections last fall, the state party is not in bad shape.

Speaking to the Democratic Club South of the Broad at the Palmetto Electric Cooperative Building, Joe Erwin said his top goal for 2005 is to strengthen the party's grassroots efforts enough so that Democrats field a candidate in every race in the state. Too many races have seen a Republican win with no Democratic candidate in opposition, he said.

He claimed every Democratic incumbent won re-election in last fall's races for state House and Senate, with the party even picking up one seat in each chamber.

"That is a message to you and me that you should have hope. You should never give up," he said. However, "We didn't run enough people."

If more Democrats run for office, there will be more good candidates who can move up and later run for higher office, he explained. For example, currently there is no clear Democratic candidate to oppose Republican Gov. Mark Sanford when he runs for re-election in 2006, Erwin said.

Erwin said he was encouraging Democratic legislators not just to oppose Republicans, but also to offer their own alternatives. But he still tossed a couple of partisan barbs.

"If Mark Sanford had his way," Erwin said, "there'd be no government in this state."

Several times during his speech, Erwin mentioned Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who is poised to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Erwin said he believes Dean will invigorate the party and is trying to plan a trip to the Palmetto State in the near future.

He noted that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry lost South Carolina by 17 percentage points last November to President Bush. But the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Inez Tenenbaum, lost by just 10 percentage points in the race against Republican Jim DeMint.

"Without Bush on the ticket, that margin was probably razor thin," Erwin said, while admitting that Tenenbaum's race "didn't go well."

Erwin and the local group of about 40 Democrats seemed to acknowledge their party's uphill battle in the strongly Republican state. He opened his speech by declaring that the South of the Broad club has the most members of any club in the state, with 633.

"That's terrible!" someone in the audience exclaimed.