Massachusetts Republicans Missing in Action in U.S. Senate Race

Feb 7, 2013 4:45 AM EST

Doesn’t any qualified state Republican want John Kerry’s U.S. Senate seat? Washington’s intense polarization and the dwindling Northeast GOP are keeping the big names away, says John Avlon.

So this is sad. The once proud Massachusetts Republican Party can’t seem to find a credible candidate to run for an open U.S. Senate seat in a June special election.

It was just three years ago, after Ted Kennedy’s death, that state Sen. Scott Brown stunned the political world by beating the much-favored Attorney General Martha Coakley. And while Brown lost his seat to Elizabeth Warren in the Obama surge of 2012, with Mitt Romney losing his home state and town by historic margins, the Bay State Republican Party has a record of putting up a respectable fight against Massachusetts Democrats.

After Bill Weld was elected governor in 1990, the GOP began a 16-year run on the top executive office, with Weld being succeeded by Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift. It took Romney just one term to bury the franchise by 2006.

Nonetheless, Massachusetts should be within the realm of possibility for Republicans. Contrary to liberal stereotypes, registered independents outnumber registered Democrats or Republicans in the state. Ronald Reagan won it twice. And the state GOP has produced national figures ranging from Calvin Coolidge to Henry Cabot Lodge to Ed Brooke, the first African-American ever popularly elected to the Senate.

more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/07/massachusetts-republicans-missing-in-action-in-u-s-senate-race.html