The Nevada Republican Party has no real chairman, and the acting chairman is under fire.

Paul Willis faces controversy for his connections to a corruption case in Pahrump, where he lives. He also has been a vocal proponent of Yucca Mountain and of an ordinance enacted last year that would have forbidden the flying of non-American flags in Pahrump.

In 2001, Willis called the risks associated with the proposed nuclear waste repository "acceptable," and in 2004 he told the Review-Journal that if the repository didn't go forward, "The real losers will be the state of Nevada and Nye County for not negotiating for benefits."

Last year, he told the Reuters news agency that Pahrump needed to outlaw foreign flags, because "all of the illegal alien protesters are waving Mexican flags, and we just got tired of it." The ordinance caused a national firestorm from those who called it jingoistic and an affront to free speech.

Some Republican Party activists have called on Willis to resign, but he said earlier this week he wasn't going anywhere. "I'm not a quitter by nature," he said.

The question dividing Republican activists, operatives and officials is whether negative perceptions of Willis and an apparent lack of party leadership could hamper Republicans going into the 2008 elections, or whether this is just a blip on the radar from which the party structure will easily recover.

The loudest calls for Willis to leave have come from Chuck Muth, a Carson City-based conservative activist and former party executive director. He says the Republican Party is losing crucial time by remaining disorganized while Democrats seem to be proceeding full steam ahead toward a star turn on the national stage.

"The Nevada Republican Party is in a state of denial," Muth said. "They're trying to pretend everything's OK, and they can just sit around and wait until April 21 and let the Democrats get ahead yet another month."

The party's central committee is scheduled to meet in Carson City on April 21 and elect a new chairman, expected to be former state Sen. Sue Lowden.

Willis was vice chairman of the party until former Chairman Paul Adams left early last month. Adams was also controversial, seen as dividing the party by apparently taking sides between Republicans in primary races.

Muth and his allies believe Willis should call an emergency meeting to put Lowden in place. Muth says the party needs a structure that can work to bolster a governor with low approval ratings during a fast-elapsing legislative session and begin the process of gearing up for a presidential election that seems to be starting earlier than ever.

Willis wants to proceed slowly and deliberately.

"We're in a transition phase, and a lot of this is going to be settled after April 21," party Executive Director Zac Moyle said. "We just came off an election where maybe we didn't do as well as we wanted to, but Republicans won the federal races and the top two statewide offices. After every election, a transition takes place."

Muth and others also say the state Republican Party is broke.

Moyle wouldn't comment on the party's finances but said, 'I'm still getting my paycheck." The party has four paid staffers, he said.

Muth does not hold a position in the party, and some party officials bristle at his aggressive statements, delivered in daily e-mail newsletters.

But he recently led a successful charge to get Nevada Republicans to move their presidential nominating contest to the same Jan. 19 date on which Democrats are holding a presidential caucus.

That move is another source of worry for Republicans. The Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moved their presidential contest into the early window between Iowa and New Hampshire back in August 2006.

Republicans initially didn't want to be bullied into copycatting a Democratic initiative. But last month, Democratic presidential contenders including Hillary Clinton and John Edwards came to Carson City for a televised forum that attracted national attention, and Republicans began to worry they could be outgunned.

Another Republican without official party status, Reno lobbyist Pete Ernaut, began agitating for a parallel Republican effort. He is working on hiring a professional organizer to coordinate the caucus and on raising the money, estimated at more than $1 million, it will require.

Now Republican insiders have a new worry: Will their early caucus effort succeed in galvanizing the languishing party structure and getting Republican presidential candidates to give Nevada the same focus the Democrats are?

Or will the early caucus only further embarrass the party if it doesn't meet its goals or attract candidates?

"We'll embarrass ourselves if we don't pull it off well," Republican political consultant Ryan Erwin said. "It has to be done appropriately and well, and it's not an easy thing to put on."

Erwin said Nevadans won't decide who to vote for in November 2008 based on who was temporarily in charge of the Republican Party in March 2007.

"I think right now it's in disarray. Right now there's no leadership. But if someone comes in with the determination, the political sophistication, the drive to win and the ability to recruit top-notch staff, it's not going to take very long to turn it around."