for awhile it looked promising when Weld won in '90 and there were as many as 3 Rep. Congressmen (Torkildsen, Blute, etc.;
or was there 2? I forget...)...Joe Malone in as Treasurer,
and there were more State Senators and Reps from the GOP.
There was talk of developing a farm team of promising young talent but it hasn't happened...Mitt worked, from what I've heard, to get some people to run for Rep./Senate seats on both local and national levels but nobody won....
And yes to get elected you do have to be more "moderate"..here.
Dems have a stranglehold on this state. With Patrick
in office the only benefit might be that it'll get so bad that there will be another "Revolution", or maybe not...
No, it was 2 Congressmembers (it would've been 3 had the ultraliberal RINO Silvio Conte in the 1st not died in '91). There were 16 out of 40 Senators and 38 out of 160 Reps. As you well know, thanks to William Weld, the King of the RINO Governors, he completely eviscerated all of the gains by the time he left office, leaving even fewer members that were there under Dukakis. I do know Mitt tried just once, but gave up (and you can't "give up" on party building as a Governor, or you're simply a failure -- one reason I'll never vote for him for President).
The problem for the GOP there is precisely their ideological approach, and it has been a consistent loser. When you have a choice between liberal 'Rats and liberal Republicans, why do you need a Republican party ?