Death knell for the local GOP?

By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 18, 2012

Brown's claims of moderation and independence, and the age-old mantra of "fiscally conservative, socially moderate," proved to be insufficient to inoculate local Republicans from the national brand.

Tisei says the national GOP needs to change — but that might be a long time coming.

What might be needed is for party leaders like Brown and Baker to articulate, in the course of high-profile campaigns, a new governing philosophy that defines today's Massachusetts Republicans.

That's what Bill Weld did in 1990, in leading the party back from its 1986 nadir.

But that can't happen if those leaders decide not to campaign against what they see as mathematically impossible odds. If that turns out to be the legacy of the 2012 elections, the MassGOP might really be buried for quite some time.

>>DBERNSTEIN@PHX.COM :: @DBERNSTEIN

< prev 1 | 2 |

Topics: Talking Politics , Politics, Local Politics, Republican Party, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN

MRS. WARREN GOES TO WASHINGTON | March 21, 2013
Elizabeth Warren was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, aside from the chair and ranking minority, to show up at last Thursday's hearing on indexing the minimum wage to inflation.

MARCH MADNESS | March 12, 2013
It's no surprise that the coming weekend's Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have become politically charged, given the extraordinary convergence of electoral events visiting South Boston.

LABOR'S LOVE LOST | March 08, 2013
Steve Lynch is winning back much of the union support that left him in 2009.

AFTER MARKEY, GET SET, GO | February 20, 2013
It's a matter of political decorum: when an officeholder is running for higher office, you wait until the election has been won before publicly coveting the resulting vacancy.

RED BLUES: SCOTT BROWN EXPOSES THE EMPTY MASSACHUSETTS GOP BENCH | February 15, 2013
It wasn't just that Scott Brown announced he was not running in the special US Senate election — it was that it quickly became evident that he was not handing the job off to another Republican.