Disenfranchised by the electoral college

I live in Massachusetts ; the Democrats could run a syphyllitic monkey here and win 12 electoral votes, solid.

Speaking as a Democrat, we really need the Republicans to be competitive here. Competition improves the breed, and its very bad for us in a number of ways to be a one party state.

For one thing, Massachusetts is ignored by the Republicans because they can't win, and by the Democrats becasue they can't lose. I have a liberal Republican state senator, whom I'd like to run for US Rep. Not that there's anything wrong with my Democratic US Rep, I just think it would be more healthy for there to be competition, both for my state and for the national parties.

This is one reason I get pissed when GWB shits on Mass. It sends the message that the Republicans hate us (which may be true of the crowd in Washington these days). But Republicans can win here when they run a moderate candidate; our last several governors have been moderate Republicans. The national party is not doing the local party any favors. The Republican party has a long history in our state going back to the civil war.

If we had a system like that contemplated in Colorado, it might swing the election to Bush, which I wouldn't like. However, it would mean that a Republican candidate could hope to win four or five electoral votes and might even consider putting the marginal effort in to try to win the state. Which would bring Republican attention ot the state and strengthen the local Republican party. Which would make the Democrats have to work harder to keep their position. Which would be good for everyone here.