THEY'RE ALL IN PLAY:

State Republican party flush with candidates, cash heading into campaign year (Steve Leblanc, 12/23/2003, AP)

State Republican leaders say their party is swimming in candidates and cash as it heads into a new campaign year.

The GOP has already recruited about 95 candidates to run for the Senate and House next year the highest number in a decade and has about $400,000 cash on hand to help fund the campaigns, GOP officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

To boost that total, top Republican leaders are dipping into their own wallets to support candidates, many of whom hope to use Gov. Mitt Romney's political coattails to ride into office.

Romney, his wife, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and her husband have already begun sending out $250 checks to the candidates, according to Dominick Ianno, executive director of the state Republican Party.

Romney said his goal is simple: Chipping away at the Democrat's overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.

Romney said he would like to capture at least a third of the seats in either chamber enough to sustain his vetoes but conceded that's unlikely, given that it would require doubling the number of Republican lawmakers in either chamber.

While the Democrats have to write off huge swaths of the country, the GOP is on the attack everywhere.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 24, 2003 6:54 AM