ed Kennedy is running for his sixth full term in the US Senate and for the first time ever, it seems he will not have a Republican opponent. Barring a miracle, the ill-starred campaign of Jack E. Robinson - badly weakened by a series of revelations about his past - will not qualify for the state ballot in November. This is widely seen as a humiliating sign of the GOP's weakness in Massachusetts. But it doesn't begin to convey just how completely the party has collapsed.
Massachusetts sends 12 men to Congress; every one is a Democrat. Of the 40 state senators, only seven are Republicans. Of the 160 state representatives, Republicans account for just 27. Governor Paul Cellucci is a Republican, but his party lacks the votes to sustain a gubernatorial veto, or even to force a roll call on controversial votes. A mere 13 percent of Massachusetts voters are Republicans - a fraction that hasn't budged in years.
Of the 12 special elections held to fill legislative vacancies since Cellucci came to office, Democrats have won 10. The governor's coattails have proved nonexistent; Democratic incumbents he has gone out of his way to defeat have been reelected easily. Even among Republicans, his influence is minimal. In the presidential primary earlier this year, he pulled out all the stops for George W. Bush. John McCain won in a landslide.
It isn't only Kennedy who will get a free pass from the GOP this fall. At least five, and as many as nine Bay State congressmen will face no credible challenger. In the Legislature, 25 Democratic senators and 90 representatives will run unopposed.
Then there are the scandals: The massive cost overrun on Boston's Big Dig, already the most expensive highway project in the nation. The ''booze cruise'' on a state-chartered boat that ended up costing the Republican director of the Massachusetts Port Authority his job. The swirl of ethics flaps involving Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift - from the use of state workers as baby-sitters to a highly irregular sinecure at Suffolk University. The discovery that $10 million was embezzled from the state Treasury on the watch of the former treasurer, Republican Joe Malone. The drunk-driving arrest of Sandy Tennant, a lobbyist and former director of the state Republican Party.
The Massachusetts GOP is a laughingstock. And the fault can be laid squarely at the feet of Cellucci and his predecessor, former Governor Bill Weld. It is hard to remember now, but when they came to office in January 1991, the party was in pretty decent shape. It had a professional staff, an aggressive fundraising operation, and a busy farm team. But Weld and then-Lieutenant Governor Cellucci purposely allowed it to fall into disrepair. Candidate recruitment stopped. Grass-roots party-building dried up. The aggressive fund-raising went on, but most of the money was now siphoned to the Weld-Cellucci campaign account; little found its way to GOP hopefuls in the field.
Instead of fighting the Democrats, Weld and Cellucci went out of their way to appease them. Weld campaigned with Bill Bulger, the very partisan Democratic Senate president who had long been anathema to GOP regulars. Cellucci attended fund-raisers for Democratic incumbents. And rather than use their patronage power to give experience and exposure to up-and-coming Republicans, both made it a point to choose Democrats for key government posts.
For example, Cellucci's new secretary of administration and finance - the so-called ''deputy governor'' - donated thousands of dollars to the state's top Democratic candidates in 1998. The governor's environmental affairs secretary was the Democratic whip in the state Senate. Cellucci yanked a longtime Republican activist from the Boston Licensing Board and replaced her with a high-profile Democrat.
Worst of all, the Massachusetts GOP stopped distinguishing itself from the Democrats on matters of principle. From gun control to abortion rights to the minimum wage, Weld and Cellucci routinely made common cause with the Democrats. With their encouragement, government spending ballooned. The state budget has swelled to $22 billion, nearly 70 percent higher than any budget Michael Dukakis ever signed. As far back as 1992 - just one year after taking office - Weld was trumpeting his support for enlarging the state. ''We're not against government spending,'' he said. ''We don't wish to dismantle government.''
If the Republican Party is near death in Massachusetts, it is because it no longer stands for much of anything. By bending over backward to accommodate Democrats, the GOP sent voters a crystal-clear message: You don't need us. Result? A power structure nearly wiped clean of Republicans.
Happily, there is a silver lining for voters who want a party that will fight for smaller government, lower taxes, and great individual freedom. Unlike the Republicans, the Libertarian Party does have a candidate for the US Senate. On May 9, Carla Howell filed nearly 33,500 signatures, far more than the number needed to qualify for the ballot.
''The federal government is too big, too costly, too sloppy, too nosy, and too bossy,'' Howell says. Republican candidates in Massachusetts used to talk that way. The fact that most of them no longer do helps explain why the Massachusetts Republican Party has nearly gone out of business.
Jeff Jacoby is a Globe columnist.
