Editorial
Re-energizing Republicans

Many wonder how Massachusetts is still one-party system given the widespread dissatisfaction with the state office holders.

It seems odd that despite the number of local people who say they identify more with the Republican party than the Democratic party, or are at least sick of a single party dominating state politics, few are stepping up to change things.

If the Republican party is going to make an impact on the state level it is going to have be become more active on the local level.

Forcing an unrealistic candidate into the race for state Sen. Robert Antonioni's seat is not going to help Republicans gain a foothold locally or statewide. And party insiders seem to think it is unlikely that someone will throw their hat into the ring in the next six weeks.

State Rep. Lew Evangelidis (R-Holden) said this week he gets a number of calls from members of the press and others looking for him to be the spokesperson for the party on federal and state level issues because of the lack of elected Republican officials.

Locally, the boards of selectmen aren't elected based on their party affiliation, but in both Ashburnham and Westminster the boards are comprised of members with varying views.

In both Westminster and Ashburnham, one registered Republican sits on the board with two unenrolled colleagues.

But in a few weeks in Westminster, the local Republicans are going to try to re-energize and re-organize their committee. The current vice-chair of the committee has been involved for more than 20 years and is ready to hand over the reigns to someone new.

This may be a difficult task in an age when most choose to be unenrolled, allowing themselves to pick a candidate of either party, not receive massive amounts of political junk mail, and avoid the associated telephone calls.

It seems that if the local Republicans can find their voice, then quite possibly the party can re-emerge from the bottom up and become a more forcible presence in the state of Massachusetts.