nly a few decades ago, the Massachusetts Republican Party had a lot going for it.
Consider the mid-1960s, when the GOP's Edward W. Brooke was the state's first African-American attorney general and then, in 1967, became the nation's first black US senator. Consider when Republican John Volpe served as governor and then, in 1968, became US secretary of transportation.
Then followed the GOP's Francis W. Sargent, who became governor in 1971. And there was Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who became the state's attorney general in 1967 and in 1973 moved to Washington to serve as US attorney general. There he gained more fame when he resigned rather than accede to President Nixon's demand that he fire Archibald Cox as special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.
In addition, back then Beacon Hill had enough Republican leadership to be influential in the decision-making process.
Today, the party cannot muster even one candidate to run against US Senator Edward M. Kennedy. How far it has come from the days of Brooke, Volpe, Sargent, and Richardson, and the Lodges and Saltonstalls before them.
An ironic reminder came recently when Brooke was honored for his years of service to Massachusetts and the nation. The state's New Chardon Street Courthouse was officially named the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse. He becamse the first black American to have a state courthouse named in his honor.
The ceremony came as another Republican, Jack E. Robinson III, finds himself in the embarrassing position of not having collected enough valid signatures to get his name on the ballot to challenge Kennedy.
Robinson has been ignored, if not shunned, by Republican Governor Paul Cellucci and the rest of the state GOP hierarchy, largely because of reports concerning charges of sexual assault brought against him by a former girlfriend, and drunken-driving and concealed weapons charges that were later dropped. Even the GOP's presidential nominee-in-waiting, Texas Governor George W. Bush, virtually ignored Robinson as he traveled around with Cellucci during a recent visit.
Robinson's image has sunk even lower on the ballot signature question. The state Ballot Law Commission said it found a ''pattern of forgery'' in 90 of the signatures Robinson submitted. The panel referred the matter to the attorney general's office for possible prosecution.
Robinson, meanwhile, last week asked the Supreme Judicial Court to overturn the decision that knocked him off the GOP primary ballot.
The contrast between Robinson and Brooke is, in a microcosm, the contrast between the state GOP in 2000 and what it was just thirty years ago.
The contrast grows even sharper when one looks at the state's congressional delegation - Democrats all, none of them with truly serious GOP opposition in this year's election.
For a while, it appeared that the GOP's strength would be renewed with the election of William F. Weld in 1990. It wasn't.
Weld lost a 1996 bid to unseat US Senator John F. Kerry and less than a year later, reportedly bored with being governor, resigned to devote himself to his nomination as ambassador to Mexico. Cellucci succeeded him, and since his election, the governor's unfavorability rating has been increasing. The promise of a rebuilding of the state GOP under Weld and Cellucci simply has not happened. If anything, Robinson is the result of, rather than responsible for, the GOP's weak condition.
In past elections, Kennedy had at least a respectable opponent in Joseph Malone, who later became state treasurer. And Kennedy had a relatively strong opponent in Mitt Romney. But this time around, the GOP could not persuade anyone with the credentials of a Malone or Romney to run.
The fact that Mitt Romney is considering a run for governor in the next election only confirms that Cellucci's political future is in serious doubt.
Perhaps the one Republican who reflects the strength and popularity of Republicans of earlier years is Suffolk Country District Attorney Ralph Martin, an African-American who is popular among Democratic and independent voters as well as GOP voters. He may be the party's brightest hope.
But without hard work and a long-term strategy, Republicans have no hope of revitalizing their party. Granted, unseating an incumbent Democrat is a formidable task. But it's not too early to begin looking at possible races next time around.
If the GOP is to once again be a real player in Massachusetts politics, it has to develop a plan - perhaps one that excludes Cellucci and Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift - for rebuilding the party, and giving it a foundation as solid as the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse.
Robert A. Jordan is a Globe columnist.
