FLORENCE — Despite the winds that swept the GOP to power across large swaths of the country in recent elections, being a Republican in western Massachusetts remains a lonely endeavor.
President Donald J. Trump performed well in certain enclaves — think Westfield, Agawam, Southwick, Chicopee, Hampden, Granby, Huntington and Ware — but there was no cracking the blue wall that exists in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties. No Republican even bothered to run in 2016 against the region’s two Democratic congressmen, Reps. Richard Neal and James McGovern.
Against that backdrop, local GOP insiders gathered Friday evening at the home of Jay Fleitman and Mary Lou Stuart to ponder the party’s present state here and to plot for the future.
Small government. Personal responsibility. Lower taxes.
“That message resounds,” said state Rep. Keiko M. Orrall, who represents a slice of Plymouth County, all the way across the state. She was visiting western Massachusetts as part of a “listening tour” and on Friday made two stops in Springfield and one stop in East Longmeadow.
To win, the party will need a ground-up approach, the Republicans said. They said Republican town committees, or RTCs, from Hatfield to Springfield are dormant or lacking in enthusiasm.
“If you don’t have the RTCs, how do you light the fire?” said Fleitman, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2010 and who writes a monthly column in the Gazette.
In towns and cities that do lean or swing Republican, statewide candidates don’t visit, Fleitman said.
“The party and the statewide candidates ignore the area and I think they ignore the area because they think there aren’t any voters out here,” he said.
The Massachusetts Legislature is dominated by Democrats. Of 40 senators, just six are in the GOP. The lone Republican from western Massachusetts is Sen. Don Humason of Westfield. In the House, Republicans hold just 35 of 160 seats.
To restore any sort of parity among the parties on Beacon Hill, and to elect statewide officials, Joseph Tarantino, chairman of the Northampton Republican City Committee, said Gov. Charlie Baker, the state’s highest-profile Republican, would need to draw more of a contrast between himself and Democrats.
Baker vetoed a controversial lawmaker pay raise Democrats pushed early this year, but Tarantino said that wasn’t enough.
“He should’ve been there with cymbals and a marching band drawing attention to this outrage,” he said. “It’s a missed opportunity.”
“That one really did not resonate very nicely out here,” Fleitman said.
When Statehouse leadership pushed through a measure pausing the opening of retail pot shops until mid-2018 — referendum language mandated a start date at the beginning of 2018 — Baker went along with it. He could have appealed to libertarian New England sensibilities by supporting the referendum language and the will of the people, Tarantino said.
He added that Baker has pushed away President Donald Trump, not voting for him in the presidential election and aligning with Democrats too often on hot-button issues.
“That’s not how you fill a room with angry people who want a change,” Tarantino said.
Orrall countered that practicality and working across the aisle in a heavily Democratic state is part of what makes Baker appealing to voters.
“We have to be focused on building relationships,” she said.
Do a lot of Democrats vote Democrat because they believe there aren’t any other options?
“A lot of people aren’t Democrats when you start talking to them,” Stuart said.
Those gathered said arguing against burdensome regulations and advocating for welfare reform are issues that could appeal to voters across the political spectrum.
Alexandria Moynihan, chairwoman of the Easthampton Republican Town Committee, pointed to Easthampton’s debate over a plastic bag ban as an issue of heavy-handed government influence she said many voters resent.
“It’s just wrong,” she said. “Leave us alone.”
Moynihan added that in part because of local Republican efforts, a plan to declare Easthampton a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants fizzled last month.
“We were called racists, bigots,” she said. They aren’t, she said. They just don’t want to encourage illegal immigration.
Those gathered also said the party has gotten a bad rap in the media. Fleitman remembered the height of the Tea Party in 2010 when he ran for Congress.
“Those folks were wonderful,” he said, “but boy were they smeared in the press. The press found the one person in the crowd who was a lunatic.”
The Republicans also name-dropped one rising star in local GOP politics: Ken Gilet of Springfield.
Gilet, who is black, is seen as someone who can bring the GOP’s message of lower taxes, personal responsibility and smaller government to all communities, the Republicans said — something they’ll need to accomplish if they want to move the needle in Massachusetts to the right.
Orrall, who is Asian-American, said the party’s message should appeal to everyone, regardless of race or religion.
“My intent is to bring that message to all kinds of people,” Orrall said.
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.