GOP icons lament party's drift, head for other side

For much of the 20th century, the Saltonstall, Lodge, and Phillips families took pride in their leadership of the state Republican Party. Now, citing their opposition to the war in Iraq and the state Republican Party's positions on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, representatives of the North Shore families say they have decided to vote for Democrat Deval Patrick on Tuesday.

"I'm tired with what the Republican Party has become today," said 85-year-old Christopher Phillips, a former Republican state senator from Beverly who later was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve as US ambassador to Brunei Darussalam.

Phillips, who also served at the United Nations with the former president, said he decided to vote Democratic after meeting with Patrick. "He stands for hard work, and he's bright," Phillips said. He has not met the Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Phillips said his decision also was swayed by President George W. Bush's policies. "On the area of foreign policy," he said, "he's managed to turn a good part of the world against the US because of his ineptitude and poor decisions."

Last month, former state senator William Saltonstall, 79, officially changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat so he could vote for Patrick in the primary. Saltonstall, who lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, served as a cohost at a Patrick fund-raiser last month in Danvers and helped raise $200,000.

Saltonstall, whose father, Leverett Saltonstall, was a Republican governor and US senator, said he believes state Republicans have drifted from the fiscal conservatism that helped define the party for most of the last century.

"Republicans used to be regarded as the party of stable economics," Saltonstall said. "Now we're borrowing a lot of money, and that doesn't go with the historical Republican point of view."

Like Phillips, Saltonstall said his decision to vote Democratic also was swayed by dissatisfaction with national Republican politics. "I've been active in the gay rights movement, because my daughter is gay -- she lives in Alaska -- and the party has not been favorable to people like her. And here in Boston, the local party has been back and forth on that sort of thing."

Healey, who lives in Beverly, could not be reached. Representatives of her campaign decli ned to comment for this story.

But, like Patrick, Healey has attracted politicians outside of her party to her campaign, establishing a pocket of Democratic support north of Boston. Elected Democrats who have endorsed her include Gloucester Mayor John Bell, Beverly City Councilor John Burke, Salem City Councilors Joan Lovely and Jean Pelletier, and Revere City Councilors Mark Casella and John Correggio.

This month, Bell stood with Healey on a Gloucester dock while members of the Gloucester Fishermen's Association endorsed the Republican nominee.

John Moffitt, a GOP strategist who managed William Weld's successful 1990 race for governor, said the decision of some old-time Republicans to go Democratic reflects societal change.

"The major issues were largely fiscal, and politics in Massachusetts was tribal, and based on ethnicity and religion as much as anything else," said Moffitt, reflecting on voting trends for much of the last century. Now, social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage have changed the voting landscape, he said. "The party has always been a fiscally conservative party, but I think that a lot of the old-time Republicans tend to be socially liberal."

George Lodge, 79, son of former Republican US senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., voted for Mitt Romney in the last governor's race. This year he donated $250 to Patrick's campaign and plans to vote Democratic. "I think he sees government as a creator, a positive force, instead of something that is to be diminished and limited the way some Republicans see it," said Lodge, who lives in Beverly.

Lodge also said he believes the state's Republican party has changed dramatically since he ran as the Republican candidate for senator against Edward M. Kennedy in 1962.

"Massachusetts Republicans used to be concerned with the problems of the poor, concerned with education, health, and were well known for taking a positive approach to government and what it can do to help the community."

Asked to comment on the defections, state Representative Brad Jones of North Reading, the House minority leader, said, "It is disappointing to see people who decided that it's better to leave the party rather than to help change the party."

State Senator Richard Tisei, a Republican from Wakefield who is the assistant minority leader, said he believes Republicans need to return to the formula that got them elected, being "socially libertarian and fiscally conservative."

NorthTalk
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