GOP struggles to fill out the ticket

The Massachusetts Republican Party's statewide ticket for 2006 is shaping up to be the weakest in memory, a development that would undercut Governor Mitt Romney's much-touted effort to revitalize the party and could weaken its bid to keep control of the governor's office.

Just a month before GOP delegates meet in Lowell to endorse a slate, no serious Republican contenders have emerged for two of the most important constitutional positions, attorney general and state treasurer. The party has embraced a politically inexperienced candidate with few financial resources for state auditor and is courting another with few political credentials to run for secretary of state.

Meanwhile, Romney's political focus has moved to national politics and to Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire as he prepares for a possible 2008 presidential run.

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's director of communications, acknowledged the governor's political sights are on the national level, particularly as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He said that Romney continues to help the Massachusetts party raise funds, but that the GOP's heavy losses in the 2004 state legislative races demonstrated the difficulty of turning around the party's fortunes in a heavily Democratic state.

''Massachusetts is a blue state," Fehrnstrom said. ''Governor Romney took his best shot at electing more Republicans in 2004, raising record amounts of money for the state party, but despite his best efforts the party did not pick up a single seat."

''While the governor will continue to raise money locally and help recruit candidates, his major political focus now as RGA chairman is helping GOP governors in their races around the country," he said.

Party officials acknowledge their problems, particularly in fielding a strong ticket to back up Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey's bid for governor. But they say the GOP plans for this year are on track for a long-term rebuilding effort.

They also say there is still opportunity to find candidates, although the time left to mount serious races is running out quickly.

Darrell Crate, Romney's hand-picked state GOP chairman, said he is proud of the candidates the party has recruited so far to fill out the statewide ticket. He acknowledged the party is in a weak position, but he attributed that to what he says are years of neglect.

''We continue to suffer broadly from the party in the '80s and '90s not building and grooming candidates," Crate said, insisting the Republican Party is stronger financially than it has ever been. ''Building the party from where it was a decade ago is a long process and we are about halfway through that process."

Crate, saying the governor has done more for the party than any of his predecessors, also dismissed the assertions by some Republicans that the lack of a strong statewide slate is in part due to Romney's shift to the national scene. He said the governor has ''done everything we have asked him to do."

But a review of ballots for the last three decades shows that Republicans were always able to craft tickets with viable candidates for constitutional offices. The weakest recent GOP ticket was in 2002, when the only strong Republican candidate was Daniel A. Grabauskas, running for state treasurer. That year, for the first time, the party did not field a candidate for attorney general.

This year, even with three Republican district attorneys in Massachusetts, Romney and the party have not recruited a candidate for attorney general, a highly prized constitutional office that is open because incumbent Thomas F. Reilly is running for governor. GOP officials said they are leaving the field wide open for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, a Democrat.

State Treasurer Timothy Cahill appears on the verge of getting a free pass from the Republicans as he seeks his second term. Beth Lindstrom, who served in several Republican administrations, resigned this winter as head of Romney's office of consumer affairs, amid speculation she would run for treasurer. But she has decided not to challenge Cahill.

The party is trying to persuade an economics professor at Holy Cross, Nicolas Sanchez of Framingham, to run for secretary of state. A one-term school committeeman who was defeated for reelection, Sanchez lost a bid for the House by a 2-to-1 ratio against a Democratic incumbent in 2004.

Earle Stroll of Bolton, who received just 21 percent in a two-way race for the GOP nomination for state auditor in 1994, has declared he is going to try again for the post. This time he will have a clear shot at the nomination, but he faces a longtime Democratic incumbent, Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci.

The state's all-Democratic congressional delegation is facing little serious challenge. Rick Barton, a retired airline pilot, has never run for office but wants to challenge US Representative John Tierney of Salem. Efforts to recruit a seasoned public figure to run against US Senator Edward M. Kennedy failed. Two obscure Republicans, not recruited by the party, are running for the nomination.

In May 2004, Romney, in a highly choreographed event, presented a field of 106 candidates for the Legislature, many them recruited by the governor. It was the biggest crop the Republicans had fielded in years.

''For way too long, Massachusetts has been a state with only one party in the Legislature, with only one voice, unaccountable, unacceptable to the people of Massachusetts," Romney told the gathered media then.

The effort was a major failure. Despite spending $3 million, the Republicans lost a net of three seats in the House and Senate,

This year, GOP officials say they are fielding more than 100 candidates for House and Senate seats, though they refused to release a list to a Globe reporter.

James Rappaport, who served as party chairman in the early 1990s, laid the responsibility for the party's plight on Romney, saying the governor had failed to show leadership, particularly over the last year while pursuing a possible White House campaign.

''Romney and the people on his team have taken their eye off the ball," said Rappaport, whom Romney rejected as a running mate in 2002.

''It is going to impact his presidential campaign. This is somebody who came into town with huge promise and said he would exhibit leadership skills. And now the party is absolutely worse off today than it was three and a half years ago," Rappaport said.

Gene Hartigan, a former executive director of the state party, said Romney's shift in political priorities is only one part of the problem. Voter anger at Bush and the Iraq war is taking its toll.

''There is not a lot of excitement around the state to recruit at the local level. Republicans don't feel energized," he said. ''They want to focus on holding the governor's office."

Frank Phillips can be reached at phillips@globe.com.