From the WSJ Opinion Archives
CAMPAIGN 2002
The Bay State Needs a Reagan
Can the Massachusetts GOP find its way after a Swift retreat?
BOSTON--Gov. Jane Swift delivered a tearful farewell address to staff members, supporters and reporters in a crowded state House briefing room Tuesday. Several hours later, across town at the Sheraton, 600 Republican activists treated former Winter Olympics organizer Mitt Romney to a welcome befitting a victorious Caesar returned from war. While Ms. Swift will be hanging around as governor for the remainder of her term and Mr. Romney has yet to be elected to anything, the event marked a fundamental changing of the guard for the state's anemic Republican Party.
Ms. Swift's departure means that the Massachusetts Republican experiment, begun in 1990 by the dashing, patrician William Weld and continued by the stolid Paul Cellucci, now comes to a close, done in by the not-so-swift incumbent. The question is whether Mr. Romney can revive the state GOP's waning fortunes.
Back in 1990--in the wake of the horrid fiscal situation wrought by Gov. Michael Dukakis and the Democratic legislature--it seemed as if a Republican tidal wave had swept the state. In addition to the election of Gov. Weld and Lt. Gov. Cellucci, that year saw Republican Joe Malone's victory as state treasurer, and the election of 16 new GOP state senators and seven new state representatives--the largest influx of Republicans into the legislature in years.
But once Messrs. Weld and Cellucci made it into office, it was every man for himself; neither of them followed the principles of former state party chairman Ray Shamie and Mr. Malone, who had focused on building the GOP organization from the ground up. Mr. Weld, in fact, turned up his nose at the grassroots of the party--which had opposed his nomination in 1990, viewing him as insufficiently conservative--and sought an alliance with the Democratic Senate president, William Bulger.
Mr. Weld soon paid a price for this: He lost the requisite number of Republican representatives needed to sustain his vetoes. Bored and unable to govern effectively, he decided to seek other offices instead. His political hopes ended ignominiously--first a defeat in the 1996 Senate race to John Kerry, then an embarrassing failed ambassadorial nomination to Mexico, and finally a retreat to the Big Apple.
Mr. Cellucci, his successor, seemed to lose interest in the governorship soon after he won it in his own right in 1998. He took the first ticket out of the state that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, an old ally, could get him--a mere ambassadorship to Canada.
He left behind him his lieutenant governor, Jane Swift, a political neophyte widely seen as not ready for the top job. She in turn chose Patrick Guerriero, a small-town mayor, as her candidate for lieutenant governor, his chief qualifications being that he was publicly gay and willing to take the job. The choice of Ms. Swift and Mr. Guerriero speaks volumes about how shallow the state GOP's pool of talent has become. In desperation, Republicans were left to seek salvation from Mr. Romney, who after unsuccessfully running for the Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994 had moved to Utah to run the Winter Olympics.
The hopes of a Republican revival in Massachusetts that bloomed a decade ago have now proven as ephemeral as the snow on the ski slopes. Republicans represent only 12% of registered voters, hold no statewide offices other than governor, and have only 22 seats in the state House (out of 160) and six in the Senate (out of 40).
Does this mean things are hopeless for Bay State Republicans? Not entirely. While there aren't many Republicans around, the number of Democrats has shrunk too, down to 37%. In Massachusetts, as in the rest of the country, the big move in recent years has been away from any party allegiance: 51% of state voters list no party affiliation, meaning they're up for grabs.
Massachusetts has a reputation as an ultraliberal haven, but the state actually voted for Ronald Reagan twice. And in an open primary in 2000, 31% of state voters supported John McCain, roughly the same number as voted for Al Gore.
Many Democrats in Massachusetts are far removed from the Brie-and-Chablis Cambridge set. The state is full of socially conservative, pro-defense, ethnic Democrats, such as state House Speaker Thomas Finneran. What keeps these voters in the Democratic column? Part of it has to do with their tendency to be liberal on economic issues, but an even more important factor is simply ethnic allegiance. The Irish still tend to be heavily Democratic, for instance, though the GOP can take heart that a small number of Italians, such as Mr. Cellucci, have defected to their ranks.
Mr. Romney now has a challenge and an opportunity that goes beyond winning the governor's office. Republicans have proved that they can do that in Massachusetts. But can a Republican governor build a state party organization that will allow him to govern effectively and leave in place credible successors?
In retrospect, Mr. Weld and Mr. Cellucci look like Eisenhower and Nixon--Republican presidents who did little to change the fundamentally Democratic orientation of the country. It took Ronald Reagan to break up the New Deal coalition. Massachusetts Republicans are still looking for their own Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Gitell is political writer for the Boston Phoenix, a weekly newspaper.
