GOP STAYS WITH LYONS
Dooley’s bid to wrest Republican leadership fails
‘This is a commitment from this party and recognition that pe ople want to build the party and I intend to harness that.’
JIM LYONS Massachusetts Republican State Committee chairman
Massachusetts Republicans are staying the course with Chairman Jim Lyons as they look to not only stop the “downhill slide” of a party increasingly in the minority in a heavily blue state but work to grow their ranks.
Members of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee handed Lyons another two years as chairman on Sunday in a slim 3936 vote over challenger Shawn Dooley, a state representative from Norfolk.
Lyons, a conservative who’s closely aligned the party’s messaging to that of President Trump, told the Herald he sees his win as an endorsement of that brand of politics.
“This is a commitment from this party and recognition that people want to build the party and I intend to harness that,” Lyons said.
Lyons plans to be “laserfocused on down-ticket races” in his second term in order to build the party’s presence statewide.
“We need Republicans in school committee seats, select board seats, city council seats, mayor seats,” the former state legislator said. “We need to do that to build the Legislature and have to make a commitment to that long-term.”
State Committeeman Todd Taylor said that strategy will be “critical” to growing party numbers after the GOP lost seats on Beacon Hill in 2020 and Republican voter enrollment remained under 10% of the state’s total.
“In the next 10 years, our goal is to be challenging for majority in the Legislature,” Taylor said.
Dooley, who’d pitched a “hard reset” for the party after its losses and fundraising woes, told the Herald he was “disappointed” by the vote.
“We’re virtually bankrupt and (Lyons has) virtually destroyed any relationship whatsoever with the Baker administration,” Dooley said. “I just don’t see the path that our party is on being able to be a viable path.”
But Dooley said he’s willing to work with Lyons, adding, “Hopefully I’m wrong and hopefully (Lyons) turns things around.”
No sooner were the votes tallied than the calls began to unite a fractured party that some members say has further splintered amid the rift between the Lyons and Gov. Charlie Baker wings.
Vice Chairman Tom Mountain said it’s time “to set aside petty differences and remember our very reason for being — to elect Republicans.”
Frank Ardinger, the state committeeman who nominated Dooley, said it’s “critically important” for Republicans to work together with the governor’s race and more looming races.
“Lyons stressed that in his acceptance speech,” Ardinger said. “The party has got to get together because if we don’t show improvement in 2022, I think the Massachusetts Republican Party is on a downhill slide.”