I live in a very Blue state, and we have few GOPers in the pipeline. We work for the most Conservative candidates we can find - sometimes they aren't as Conservative as we would like, but any movement that way is progress.
None of our "establishment" candidates are GOPers, so every one we get is a success, even if they get trashed as being RINOs or whatever.
It can take awhile to get to the end point, but progress is significant anyway.
I have been defending Snowe and Collins on here this week for that very reason. They are liked in Maine and the people of Maine would never elected an Inhofe or Coburn. You work to elect the most conservative candidate but a conservative from Maine would be a moderate in Oklahoma. People have to recognize the difference and in the case of Snowe and Collins they vote with Republicans a lot more than against.
All politics is local and people have to realize that not every State is going to elect Conservatives. We have to take small steps in those states and bashing our elected officials and calling them RINOs is dumb IMHO because not all Republicans are conservative which doesn't seem to get through to some people on here.