By Jessica Fargen
THE FEW, THE PROUD: Edward Wagner, left, meets at Doyle’s in Jamaica Plain with fellow Republicans, from left, Nick Nesta, Aaron Goldstein, George Rigas and Brian Culver.
The state’s loneliest Republicans - those who languish in the navy blue regions from Northampton to Nantucket - are shaking off their years-long malaise and rebuilding a political machine in the land of Birkenstocks and Priuses.
“People are coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘We’ve been Republicans in hiding and now we want to be out and help,’ ” said Jeffrey Hopkins, chairman of the City Republican Committee in the old Democratic union stronghold of Fall River.
In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in his Senate campaign versus Martha Coakley, a surge in interest in the GOP has come from longtime Republicans, independents, Tea Party activists and even Democrats, dazzling many organizers.
“It was not a team that anybody wanted to join,” said Larry Giunta, 41, chairman of Newburyport Republican City Committee, which grew from zero members to 60 in one year, thanks to organization and Brown’s win. “The days of meeting in the basement of your local library and having two or three people show up are over.”
The GOP is organizing across Boston, the heart of the Democratic Party’s network in the state. This past year, Republican ward committees reorganized in traditionally Democratic Southie, Charlestown and Dorchester.
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