GOP retools: It's back to the pocketbook

Republican leaders in the Legislature, seeking to rebuild their party after a bruising loss in the governor's race, are vowing to offer a more moderate, collegial message centered on economic and cost-of-living issues instead of the controversial social themes that Governor Mitt Romney has pressed in his appeal to presidential primary voters.

House and Senate GOP leaders plan to unveil a broad policy agenda next month focused on keeping the state affordable for residents and businesses and promoting economic expansion. Their intent, they say, is to re-brand the GOP as a party that does not just fight Democratic ideas but offers smart solutions.

The strategy, Republicans say, is to return the GOP to its identity as a party of fiscal conservatives and social moderates, which brought it success in the past and will help attract new voters and candidates in the future. Romney ran for office in that moderate mold but has shifted to more socially conservative positions as he gears up for the 2008 presidential race.

"One thing that hasn't worked well for Republicans all across New England is the tilt toward social issues that the national party has taken," said Richard R. Tisei, the incoming Senate minority leader. "I think the governor, in his attempts to position himself in the Republican primary, has highlighted a lot of social issues, and I think, quite frankly, that hurt [Lieutenant Governor] Kerry Healey and it also . . . blurred the differences that we've had with the national party."

Romney has railed against gay marriage, emergency contraception, and stem cell research, but, according to Tisei, it's economic concerns that "are really the issues that people care about and will see us promote."

House and Senate Republicans declined to detail many specific proposals they would push when the session begins in January, saying they were still crafting their agenda. Bradley H. Jones Jr., the Republican leader in the House, said one idea is to create a first-time homebuyers program to make it easier for people to break into the expensive Massachusetts housing market.

Republicans also plan to offer environmental proposals, Jones said, possibly including new subsidies and incentives to buy hybrid vehicles and a push to increase the state's reliance on renewable energy. "We want to focus on some things that maybe the party hasn't focused on in the past," said Jones of North Reading.

Republicans in the House and Senate still must keep the largely Democratic Legislature and the Democratic governor-elect, Deval L. Patrick, in check, Jones said, but both chambers believe that the party needs to be not just a "critic" but a "playwright."

"Not only do we have the responsibility of . . . providing the checks and balances in the Legislature, but we also have a tremendous responsibility to carry the Republican Party's banner and try to make sure that our ideas and proposals are imprinted in every major bill that passes the Legislature during the session," said Tisei of Wakefield.

State Senator Scott P. Brown said it will be "refreshing" not to have a Republican in the corner office because he won't have to "carry the governor's water" and can vote how he wants to vote. Brown said, for example, that he voted to override many of Romney's vetoes of funding for mental health and other social service programs. The day after the election, Brown said, he and Patrick had a 45-minute phone conversation. He said he was excited to see what Patrick would do once in office.

"If there are things that I can help him with, I'm eager to do it," said Brown of Wrentham.

House and Senate Republicans are also seeking a far more united front than GOP legislators have had. Jones and Tisei already talk nearly every day, and they plan to keep their respective caucuses together as a bloc as often as possible. They've even created a new policy group of GOP lawmakers to collaborate on legislation.

"I think we're all in agreement that we're such a small party that we have to work together," said Peter G. Torkildsen, a moderate who is a former GOP congressman and state representative and who is hoping to be named the GOP chairman next month. "We can't have everyone going off on their own and expect to be successful."

Part of the motivation for Republicans in the Legislature to pursue a moderate agenda for the next two years is political -- namely, they're looking to rebuild Republican ranks in the House and Senate and among voters. The Legislature now has 24 Republicans -- 19 in the House, and five in the Senate -- out of 200, and there are 36,000 fewer registered Republicans statewide than in 2004.

To recapture centrist, unenrolled voters and attract new candidates, Republicans say, they have to distance themselves from Romney's stances on social issues and focus on economic issues. "On the social front, he's charted his own course for his own purposes. Has it always helped us? No, I don't think it has," said state Senator Michael R. Knapik of Westfield. "We know to either recapture the unenrolled or to build our party, we have to look at the reality of Massachusetts." Knapik, however, said he doesn't fault Romney for going his own way.

Jody Dow, a Republican state and national committeewoman, added, "We are a moderate state, and we do better by looking at things in a more moderate sense." But Dow added that she doesn't think Romney hurt Healey much in last month's election.

In fact, Healey distanced herself from Romney on several issues during the campaign -- including stem cell research and abortion -- in an attempt to give off an image as a fiscal conservative with moderate social positions. Republicans in the Legislature say that, despite Healey's loss, polls during the campaign showed many voters agreed with her positions on crime, taxes, and immigration and that their agenda is likely to include proposals in all those areas.

Immigration is one issue where Romney and many Republicans in the Legislature have had common ground, and GOP lawmakers say they will continue their push in the next session to toughen laws against those who are here illegally and companies that employ them. The lawmakers cast illegal immigration as an economic issue, saying it's unfair for some companies to follow the law while competitors are able to offer goods and services more cheaply by employing low-wage, undocumented workers.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.