The state Legislature wrapped up a hectic week Thursday to meet a self-imposed deadline in which lawmakers debated and kept hundreds of bills alive for the next two years and rejected only a few outright.

Bills unrelated to spending or taxes that didn't pass the House or Senate by the end of the day are probably dead until they can be reintroduced in 2011.

While legislators did approve a historic smoking ban for bars and restaurants, few bills actually go to Gov. Beverly Perdue at the close of the so-called crossover deadline. The week gives lawmakers a small victory to build hope that their ideas may become law later this year or next.

"It's been through two committees and it's in pretty good shape," House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said during a late afternoon break. "You can go forward with a lot of confidence if your bill gets through today."

Before leaving for the weekend, the Senate approved legislation that would allow prisoners on death row to challenge their sentences on the grounds of racial bias but removes legal barriers that have stopped the state from carrying out executions for more than two years.

The House also agreed to order high schools with high dropout rates to reorganize as vocational schools, made bullying a child on the Internet a misdemeanor and allowed reformed repeat drunken drivers to one day get their driving privileges back.

"The message we need to send to the public is that many alcoholics recover," said Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, of the bill that would restore a driver's license after 10 years. "The message we send with this archaic law is that once a drunk always a drunk."

The House and Senate have held long daily sessions since they arrived in Raleigh on Monday.

While they moved along legislation to place a motorist's end-of-life wishes on their driver's license, a bill to allow a judge to validate contracts between a surrogate mother and the intended parents of the unborn child was pulled and its future unclear.

The bill's sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, pulled it after some lawmakers wanted it to address what would happen to the contract if the surrogate had an abortion.

A measure sponsored by first-term Sen. Don Davis, D-Greene, that would allow mayors - with approval of a local ordinance - to officiate at a marriage, appeared dead when it was sent back to committee.

But it was revived and passed after an attempt by another lawmaker trying to amend the bill to get a ban on gay marriage on the state ballot was derailed.

Passage of the smoking ban and the Senate's death penalty bill wrapped up a recent stretch in which one chamber approved legislation that has divided sharply lawmakers in recent years. Other bills would require school districts to approve detailed anti-bullying rules and expand sex education curricula for young teenagers in the schools.

"Those bills had been around awhile and as people have the opportunity to examine the bills," Rand said. "As the public comes to understand what the bills are about, they get more comfortable with them."

Although hundreds of bills never made it out of committee due to lack of support, few got pulled on the floor and only one Thursday was defeated outright.

A measure by Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, to order health departments to encourage grocery stores to offer free sanitary wipes to clean germ-covered shopping cart handles went down to defeat as several House members complained the state had better things to do.

"I can't believe we're even considering this," said Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, before the bill was rejected by a vote of 44-73. "Are we going to start sanitizing our dollar bills, the cashier?"

While some lawmakers expressed frustration with the pace of crossover week - hastily called committee meetings on the floor and little time to review legislation - Hackney received praise from members of both parties for running floor sessions efficiently with breaks.

"We actually got to go eat," said Rep. Curtis Blackwood, R-Union.

The House session ended with a farewell speech by Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake, who will move over to the Senate soon to take the seat of late Sen. Vernon Malone. Blue was elected the first black House speaker in the state in 1991.

"As we face the greatest financial challenge to our state since the Great Depression, this chamber is called upon to lead in tough times," Blue told his colleagues. "I'll always love and defend this institution."