I see the problem:

$  dig @70.85.16.76 lecws.com axfr
[...]
demo.lecws.com.lecws.com. 86400 IN      A       70.85.16.76
webmail.lecws.com.lecws.com. 86400 IN   A       70.85.16.76
[...]

That generally means you either have a missing or extraneous period in one of the hostnames specifications somewhere. Usually something like:

demo.lecws.com    IN  A  70.85.16.76

being the error, causing it to tack on the domain name at the end to make it become demo.lecws.com.lecws.com. IN A 70.85.16.76.

In the zone file, it needs to be either demo IN A ... or demo.lecws.com. IN A ...

But what you've posted and tried (both forms) looks absolutely correct. Hmm. Perhaps had it wrong with an earlier test and it stuck in cached memory?

Try this: set the serial number to 2006010700 then do 'rndc reload', and mention it's been done, here.

Done.

Hmm... it's still giving the old serial number.

$ dig @70.85.16.76 lecws.com axfr

; <<>> DiG 9.2.5 <<>> @70.85.16.76 lecws.com axfr
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
lecws.com.              86400   IN      SOA     ns1.lecws.com. root.lecws.com. 2005123001 10800 120 604800 86400

If need be, stop named completely then start it up, after making sure the new serial number is indeed in the zone file.

I wanted to rule out cached stuff from a possible earlier goof, which is why we're doing the serial number update thing. If it still looks odd even after the serial number update, there is an additional trick to try. But, first things first.

Done. I stopped named and then started it up again.

Now the entire zone doesn't exist at all.

Sounds like a possible syntax error somewhere in the zone file causing named to refuse to load the zone.

Check your log files for any messages from named.

If you have a webserver, could you post the contents of named.conf and lecws.com zone file? Or send them to me in private message?

Running a nameserver is normally not this hard. I think you've got something really small in either named.conf or zone file that's breaking everything.

Sent you a pm.

We talked offline and sorted out everything. He also made his setup much more robust. Looks great!