Slow Going for GOP Recruitment

The Globe South had a pair of stories yesterday on the state GOP's trouble recruiting candidates in the region south of Boston. Of the 15 Democrats who faced Republican challenges in 2004 in that area of the State, eleven are currently unopposed. This is especially bad, in my opinion, for the state Republican party because places like Plymouth county could break for Kerry Healey in the gubernatorial election, if the voting patterns from 2002 hold. In those areas, she would have no coattails if there are no Republicans down ballot.

Matt Wylie, the ever-optimistic executive director of the Mass. GOP claims that not only will candidates emerge well before the June deadline, but that the state Republicans will "pick up seats." Well, Matt, it's like the old lottery slogan -- You can't win if you don't play.

The other Globe story reports on what happened to the GOP class of 2004, none of whom were able to win their elections. It's no small wonder, either, since that crop included notable luminaries as disgraced Brockton GOP chair Larry Novak (whose adventures in money laundering we've chronicaled earlier) and Matthew Sisk of Braintree, who was arrested March 1 on a drunken-driving charge. Sisk, by the way, was the first candidate that Governor Mitt Romney stumped for, according to the Globe. I guess he really knows how to pick 'em.