The stunning victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown, a Republican in Massachusetts, is a very hopeful sign for a moribund Republican party in the Bay State.
Make no mistake.
The Republican party in Massachusetts is but a blip on the political radar screen.
In this breakdown of registered voters in Massachusetts, as of 2006, a paltry 12.5% of registered voters were with the Republican party. The best total of registration for the Republicans is in Barnstable County. And that is a rip-roaring 19%. The worst is in Suffolk County, home of Boston. There, the Republicans have 8% of all registered voters. The number of total Republican voters is 499,000. By the same token, the Democrat party has a 37% of all registered voters statewide. That translates to 1,473,000 statewide. And undeclared tops both at 50% statewide and 1,988,000.
So, the numbers are really against the Republicans in registered voters. It is even worse for elective office.
This is the total of Republican elected officials statewide:
Elected Officials
Representative Brad Jones
Representative Fred Barrows
Representative Vinny DeMacedo
Representative Lewis Evangelidis
Representative Paul Frost
Representative Susan Williams Gifford
Representative Robert Hargraves
Representative Brad Hill
Representative Don Humason
Representative Jeff Perry
Representative George Peterson
Representative Karyn Polito
Representative Richard Ross
Representative Todd Smola
Representative Dan Webster
Representative Elizabeth Poirier
Senator Richard Tisei
Senator Scott Brown
Senator Bob Hedlund
Senator Michael Knapik
Senator Bruce Tarr
Sheriff Frank Cousins
Sheriff James Cummings
Sheriff Tom Hodgson
Sheriff Joseph McDonald
District Attorney Timothy Cruz
District Attorney Michael O'Keefe
Mayor Hawke of Gardner
Mayor Sullivan of Lawrence
Note there is not one Republican member of congress in this list. Oh, and the grand total of elected members of the General Court (legislature)? A grand total of 21. Out of a potential 200 between both houses. It is not even the 12.% of registered Republican voters. It is about 10.5% of the state legislature.
It is any wonder why the Massachusetts Republicans had to pick and choose their election battles carefully. And they had tried to get the best candidates to win the governor's office. It was a last line of defense against absolute one-party rule. But it also meant that all time and meager resources would go into that race against all others.
But Sen-elect Brown may have changed that.
Sen.-elect Brown has an unusual coalition that backed him in the just-passed special election. The special election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's term.
Many that backed Sen.-elect Brown were independents, blue-collar, labor rank-and-file, social liberals, Libertarians, fiscal conservatives and foreign policy hawks. A kind of sort of rainbow coalition.
So, Sen.-elect Brown is a little of everything to all these voters. Importantly, he gets to drive the bus of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Because he is the first Republican to win a senate seat since 1972. Meaning that outside of President Reagan's wins in 1980 and 1984, Sen.-elect Brown is the first Republican not a governor to win statewide.
Many of those independents have waited long to have a Republican that they could vote for. Now the hard part is getting these voters to become Republicans and run for General Court, congress and other state-wide offices.
And that is why Sen.-elect Brown will be unconventional as a senator.
I think that Sen. Brown is going to be a lot like the former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin. A hawk on spending and the role of government. A hawk on foreign policy. And yes, probably not exactly a social conservative. But something less than a social liberal. In a sense, he will bring a lot of those independent voters into a Republican fold if he can stick to those principles. And they will realize that this Republican party will welcome all comers. Meaning that the Massachusetts Republican party will grow and eventually become more competitive state wide.
That is a good thing for democracy. What has happened in Massachusetts is abominable. The Democrats have long lived off of the Kennedy name. And it has translated into votes. Now that the last link to the so-called Camelot era is off to the Glory, this is a great time for the moribund Massachusetts Republican Party to get back into fighting form.
And Sen.-elect Scott Brown is going to help that happen.
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