This was a bad election and no one is more upset than I am about it. The GOP lost three open Republican seats. We went from 19 to 16 seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Just north of us in New Hampshire, we had Republican incumbent John Sununu lose his senate seat and to the south of us we lost incumbent Congressman Chris Shays in Connecticut, the last Republican Congressman of New England is now gone. Typically, around 98% of incumbents get reelected. If Senator Sununu and Congressman Shays could not hold on in this climate, it would be very difficult for non-incumbent Republicans to win in Massachusetts.
Some of you want to give up and go into hibernation and I can understand, although I don't agree. The number of GOP activists is not finite. Yesterday morning I arrived to the MassGOP headquarters, and as you can expect, in a pretty low mood.
Then the phone started ringing.
An Unenrolled (independent) voter called from Tewksbury to ask how he could switch to become a Republican. After I told him how to register as a Republican, he asked how he could fight for the party and be active in building it.
Then, a Republican in Brighton called who has never been involved before but asked how he could run for office to carry the GOP banner.
A Democrat from Watertown called and is switching to Republican and is looking to get involved.
The phone continued to ring with similar stories. There are new people that have never been involved before but now they want to fight. These people are now awake.
There were 1,104,086 people in Massachusetts that voted for John McCain. There are 15,696 people that moved to Massachusetts this year that were registered as Republicans in their previous state. As crazy as this sounds, there are Republicans moving to Massachusetts. This is just the beginning of a massive effort to grow the Republican Party from the bottom up and reach out to these people with welcoming arms.
This Party will not grow if we keep looking to others, or to "Merrimac Street" (State Party headquarters). This effort is to empower you to self-organize and to become more independent with the tools that you need. The Party is here to be your ally and assist you with technology, trainings, and lists of names, numbers, and emails but it is you that has to work.
If you want to join the Democrat from Watertown, the Unenrolled from Tewksbury, the Republican from Brighton along with the others that called our headquarters to be part of this effort, you can do so right now.
Sign up and let us know what you are interested in. And most importantly, if we are to expand our party we need to share this blog post. For us to Grow Our Party, this opportunity must go viral so share this with your email list and post it on blogs.
In only a few weeks we will begin to have municipal elections and in 729 days we will have a state election; your active involvement today will mean a brighter future for tomorrow.
Just north of us in New Hampshire, we had Republican incumbent John Sununu lose his senate seat and to the south of us we lost incumbent Congressman Chris Shays in Connecticut, the last Republican Congressman of New England is now gone. Typically, around 98% of incumbents get reelected. If Senator Sununu and Congressman Shays could not hold on in this climate, it would be very difficult for non-incumbent Republicans to win in Massachusetts.
Some of you want to give up and go into hibernation and I can understand, although I don't agree. The number of GOP activists is not finite. Yesterday morning I arrived to the MassGOP headquarters, and as you can expect, in a pretty low mood.
Then the phone started ringing.
An Unenrolled (independent) voter called from Tewksbury to ask how he could switch to become a Republican. After I told him how to register as a Republican, he asked how he could fight for the party and be active in building it.
Then, a Republican in Brighton called who has never been involved before but asked how he could run for office to carry the GOP banner.
A Democrat from Watertown called and is switching to Republican and is looking to get involved.
The phone continued to ring with similar stories. There are new people that have never been involved before but now they want to fight. These people are now awake.
There were 1,104,086 people in Massachusetts that voted for John McCain. There are 15,696 people that moved to Massachusetts this year that were registered as Republicans in their previous state. As crazy as this sounds, there are Republicans moving to Massachusetts. This is just the beginning of a massive effort to grow the Republican Party from the bottom up and reach out to these people with welcoming arms.
This Party will not grow if we keep looking to others, or to "Merrimac Street" (State Party headquarters). This effort is to empower you to self-organize and to become more independent with the tools that you need. The Party is here to be your ally and assist you with technology, trainings, and lists of names, numbers, and emails but it is you that has to work.
If you want to join the Democrat from Watertown, the Unenrolled from Tewksbury, the Republican from Brighton along with the others that called our headquarters to be part of this effort, you can do so right now.
Sign up and let us know what you are interested in. And most importantly, if we are to expand our party we need to share this blog post. For us to Grow Our Party, this opportunity must go viral so share this with your email list and post it on blogs.
In only a few weeks we will begin to have municipal elections and in 729 days we will have a state election; your active involvement today will mean a brighter future for tomorrow.
The building has begun and we can do big things.
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