I would counter that Weld and Romney (and Celucci) were the only types of Republicans that were going to get elected. In 1972, years before Weld or Romney stepped onto the scene, MA was the only state to vote for McGovern. It’s a lot more complex than can be explained but it’s decline has less to do with Romney and Weld than with issues such as demographic change and the Kennedy realignment. How would one explain Vermont then, which was easily more of a GOP bastion than MA ever even in its glory days was?
You can look up some of my posts on the subject, but I stridently disagree leftist RINOs were the only kinds of Republicans MA could elect. MA did vote for Reagan, it voted for the Conservative Ed King, so that’s nonsense. MA voted for McGovern because of a unique visceral dislike for Nixon that ran counter to the rest of the nation. And lastly, I was specifically addressing the situation from 1990-2006 in the state, and yes, it absolutely is the fault of Weld/*omney. A perfect example of what happens when you have Democrat agents invading the GOP and destroying it from within (and some here make the argument McCain could very well be one of those — he has the potential to send the GOP to 1/3rd of Congress by 2010).
As for Vermont, its Republicans opted to go left instead of right (beginning in the 1950s when it really mattered — look up my posts on Consuelo Bailey, a legendary Conservative GOP officeholder in the state who was denied the Governorship less because of her gender and more because she wasn’t a liberal) and ended up with predictable results. The state was also invaded by liberals from other states, too (the Socialist Senator being an example of that). The Dems made a breakthough there at the federal level as long ago as 1958 when they elected the ultraleftist William Meyer (but booted him after a single term). Meyer’s radical envirokook ultrahippy son moved down here to my city some time ago. The current RINO Governor there has done little to stem the erosion of the party in the legislature after Mad Howie managed to drive one body (House) back to the GOP.