WASHINGTON - Politicians who break promises to voters often pay a price. If nothing else, they face the prospect of election foes berating them for months as flip-floppers.
Then there is Representative Martin T. Meehan. Despite vowing in 1992 to serve no more than four terms in the House, the Lowell Democrat appears poised to win a fifth term in November without serious Republican opposition, and perhaps no general election opponent at all.
While similar pledge-breakers are under siege across the country, Meehan is the beneficiary of vast popularity in his district and a state Republican Party whose candidate ranks run so thin that GOP leaders have failed to persuade anyone to even try to exploit Meehan's potential vulnerability.
The GOP has encountered such a dearth of candidates, in fact, that to date only one of the state's 10 Democratic House members - Representative John W. Olver of Amherst - faces a Republican challenger who has ever run for elective office.
''Nobody is coming forward, and that's sad,'' said Thomas N. Tavener, a Rockland Republican, who decided to launch his political career by challenging Representative William D. Delahunt of Quincy after no prominent GOP candidate stepped forward.
With less than a month to go before the May 9 filing deadline for the 2000 federal elections, state Republican leaders harbor little hope of running established candidates against more than one or two Democratic incumbents.
As a consequence, national GOP leaders have all but scuttled expectations that the state party will aid their struggle to maintain control of the House. Democrats need to gain a net of only six seats in November to end six years of Republican rule in the House.
John Brockelman, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the party has not written off the House races in Massachusetts. But state GOP leaders said they are focusing largely on trying to build strength in the State House so they can develop more competitive candidates for federal offices.
''Obviously, we're not going to be competitive in all 10 House races,'' Brockelman said. ''It's certainly going to be a long-term project, but if we can pick off one or two seats this year and keep moving forward as the years go on, that's a huge victory for us.''
Picking off any seats, though, poses a monumental challenge. The GOP's best hope to date is Peter J. Abair of Holyoke - a former aide to Governor Paul Cellucci, Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift and the late US Representative Silvio Conte - who is trying to topple Olver.
Abair, 35, in his only previous run for public office, lost a GOP primary for the state Senate in 1996 to Paul Babeu, a Berkshire County commissioner. Abair attributed the loss to running ''against someone who had the party apparatus in his back pocket.''
This year, GOP leaders are helping Abair raise money and plan to campaign aggressively for him. ''It's been very refreshing,'' he said.
But as willing as Abair was to answer Cellucci's plea to run for the House, many others have summarily rejected the governor's appeals. And a small number are wavering, most notably former radio host Janet Jeghelian, a Westwood Republican whom Cellucci has asked to challenge Representative J. Joseph Moakley of South Boston.
Jeghelian boosted her name recognition with unsuccessful campaigns for the US Senate in 1994 and lieutenant governor in 1998. The problem is, she may like Moakley too much to run against him.
''I've been considering it sort of reluctantly,'' she said. ''Initially, I wasn't all that anxious to do it. Joe Moakley is a wonderful guy and he has been a very good congressman.''
But Jeghelian, who continues to ponder the possibilities, said, ''It drives me crazy to realize that there is no Republican representation from Massachusetts in Congress, especially a Republican Congress.''
Then there is Tavener, 53, a mental health counselor at Pembroke Hospital who said he jumped into the race against Delahunt only after the Republicans he considered best suited to the task declined: Michael Sullivan, the Plymouth County district attorney, and Peter Forman, a former Plymouth County sheriff who is acting secretary of state for administration and finance.
Tavener, whose uncle and grandfather served as GOP members of the House from Ohio, casts himself as a consensus-building conservative. He served as an Army paratrooper and worked in a steel mill before moving to the mental health field. He did not complete college, but notes that 27 members of the 435-member House do not have college diplomas.
Yet Tavener faces a more serious obstacle. He said his effort to raise the $500,000 he believes he needs to battle Delahunt is ''going very slowly.''
Delahunt started the year with a campaign fund of $826,000.
While Republican officials wage a final effort to recruit candidates to challenge other Massachusetts incumbents, Meehan's only declared opponent is a Democrat, Joseph F. Osbaldeston, 42, of Ayer, who has never sought public office.
Marc L. Laplante, 33, a Republican member of the Lawrence City Council, said recently he would begin collecting signatures as he considers whether to pursue a race against Meehan. Laplante represents the GOP's last hope of fielding an opponent against Meehan after several better known candidates opted not to run. ''This month will be critical to assess the support I have and the amount of money I need to raise,'' Laplante said.
Osbaldeston is a financial services specialist and retired member of the Army special forces who describes himself as ''a John McCain kind of candidate.'' But Osbaldeston bears the political burden of a recent personal bankruptcy and is struggling to secure the 2,000 signatures he needs by May 9 to get on the ballot.
Meehan would not be an easy target for any rival, partly because he started the year with a campaign fund of $1.5 million, far more than any other House incumbent from Massachusetts. In addition, he appears to have received more public support than criticism for seeking a fifth term after his earlier pledge.
Osbaldeston said he believes he can compete against Meehan on a budget of $50,000, though strangers have told him he ''must be crazy'' to try.
Still, Osbaldeston said he is determined to take on Meehan, largely because of the term-limits issue. ''It's now or never,'' he said. ''I'm mad as hell, and I can't take it anymore.''
