Free Republic

They call themselves Main Street Republicans, moderates consigned to the back alleys of politics by their own party. But despite a severe bruising in the fall election, this minority within a minority finds itself with new avenues to explore, including working more closely with Democrats. The Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading voice of GOP moderates in Congress, lost seven of its 48 House members to Democratic challengers in the November election. Two other senior members, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., are retiring. The group also saw Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., one of its eight Senate members...

My Kind of GOP Why do the Republicans seem to be on autopilot? By Chester E. Finn Jr. To be a heartfelt Republican has gotten hard in recent years, but while we were in charge in Washington and most state capitols it was easy, though perhaps unwise, to keep still about this. Will the GOP use its recent losses to change itself into something that more people again feel positive about? Or will everyone assume that the 2006 election was just an anti-Bush, anti-Iraq glitch and therefore the party should stay on its present course until those two unpopular interruptions...

ALBANY, N.Y.--The recent midterm election was bad news for Republicans, but it was even worse for New York Republicans. The GOP lost all three statewide offices by wide margins; its gubernatorial candidate did not even break 30%. Its sacrificial lamb for Senate did only slightly better, and representation in the state's 29-seat congressional delegation fell from nine to six seats. The most prominent state Republican is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Democrat who, shall we say, wears his party affiliation lightly. What a contrast with 1994, when George Pataki, a little-known Republican legislator, defeated three-term incumbent Gov. Mario...

HARTFORD, Conn. --Just two weeks after the election, the shrinking Republican minority in the state's House of Representatives got a little smaller. State Rep. Diana Urban, a newly re-elected, six-year incumbent from North Stonington, announced she was switching parties and joining the majority Democrats. It marked another setback for the Connecticut Republicans, who had little to cheer about after this month's election except for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's overwhelming victory. Rep. Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, the new House minority leader, denies Urban's defection has anything to do with the party. He said it was more about Urban. But Cafero...

The Connecticut Republican Party has one foot in the political morgue, but it's the picture of health compared with its counterpart in Massachusetts. Connecticut Democrats now have veto-proof super-majorities in both legislative houses, and control the four constitutional offices. They hold five of seven seats in the U.S. House and Senate (most likely six, pending a recount in the 2nd District), and the lone surviving GOP congressman, Rep. Christopher Shays, will never be mistaken for a Reagan Republican. Only Gov. M. Jodi Rell's victory on Nov. 7 preserves what passes for two-party rule at the Capitol. Compare that with the...

“Far Right Soley (sic) Responsible for Democratic Gains.” That’s the title of a hastily written press release I received last Wednesday from the Republican Main Street Partnership. In fact, it had been posted on RMSP’s website Tuesday before midnight. “For the last two years,” wrote RMSP executive director Sarah Chamberlain, “centrist GOPers have warned the leadership of our party of the consequences of pushing a legislative agenda cow-towing to the far right in our party.” (For the record, I also oppose “cow-towing,” and all other forms of bovine abuse.) In the release, Chamberlain argues that if conservatives had only backed...

The classic New England Republican -- fiscally conservative, socially liberal -- is near death, following a long and quiet decline that began more then a decade ago when the GOP nationally began its move to the right. It is a political breed generations old. The Democratic tidal wave in Tuesday's elections claimed several victims in seats that had long been in Republican hands. Scholars say the losses may be the death knell for the traditional "rock-ribbed" New England Republican.