IT’S NOT HARD to find Republicans with a long list of suggestions about what Romney should do to build his party. The road map for bringing the party back to relevance in the Commonwealth was written by Joe Malone, who became executive director in 1987. Malone was elected just as the state GOP faced its humiliating nadir in 1986, when the party put up businessman George Keriotis in a losing bid for governor after a string of other candidates had already crashed and burned. Malone provided the energy and millionaire Ray Shamie, who had run for US Senate in 1984 against John Kerry, flexed the fundraising muscle. In a 1988 effort aimed largely at creating an identity for the Republican Party, Malone launched a quixotic campaign against Senator Ted Kennedy. While Kennedy soundly defeated him, Shamie and Malone used the high-visibility race as a way to recruit candidates for 1990. That year — helped along by a poor economy and a highly unpopular tax increase — Republicans succeeded in both recruiting candidates and getting them elected to the legislature. "We doubled our numbers in the Senate," Malone recalls. The number of Republican senators went from eight to 16 (new members included Richard Tisei, Bob Hedlund, and Jane Swift), enough to support Weld’s vetoes. Malone counsels Romney to emulate the party’s actions back then. "There are four cornerstones," says Malone. "Improve the brand name; recruit candidates; raise money for the candidates; energize the activists."

By now, most Republicans are familiar enough with the state’s political dynamics to know Malone’s formula by heart. Former Republican congressman Peter Blute, Republican analyst Jim Nuzzo, even most Republicans in the House and Senate emphasize the same four tactics. The GOP has no difficulty knowing what to do. Rather, the difficulty lies in doing it.

So far, Romney hasn’t delivered. The governor’s office — presumably preoccupied with the political battles of the moment (reforming the judiciary, eliminating the MDC, privatizing UMass) — says through press secretary Shawn Feddeman that right now Romney’s primary focus is on restoring fiscal balance to the state. And judging from how Romney has delegated other political tasks — such as lobbying local mayors, a job that falls to Healey — slapping the backs of local Republicans at the city and town level is not likely to be a task the Olympian Romney is going to relish. It’s hard, for instance, to imagine Romney inviting members of the great unwashed to his Belmont manse for pep talks. But this is exactly what he must do if his ambitious agenda is going to succeed. Even Cellucci, whom almost everyone now criticizes for his poor stewardship of the party, devoted at least some personal energy to party building. Former party chair Brian Cresta recalls Cellucci meeting with 40 potential candidates for state races, personally placing fundraising calls twice a week, and pushing for the rollback of the statewide income tax in 2000, which worked to Romney’s advantage in 2002.

"There’s no reason [Romney] can’t have gatherings at his home for town-committee members so he can make them feel a part of the system," Nuzzo suggests. "And when the town committee has identified someone and they need a little more goosing to run, Romney makes the phone call. It can’t be seen as just the lieutenant governor’s gig. The governor’s the guy who’s got to show he really cares."

Yet convincing the patrician Romney that he might have to do this could be difficult. "The one thing I get from Romney is he’s not a chummy member of the club up there," says Blute. "They had to pull his teeth just to meet with some mayors. The governor has to put his prestige on the line and go out and recruit people."

It’s possible, some say, to make too much of the need for Romney’s personal involvement. His main contribution to building the party will be the tone and messages he sends from Beacon Hill and the example he sets for other Republicans. "Trying to do it seat-by-seat is a pretty big task," says Kaufman. "Having a cohesive message is the best thing you can do. And the governor’s doing a great job making government more efficient, cost less, spend less, and tax less. Having that message across the ticket in 2004 is a way for us to have serious gains."

Even if he manages to bypass the rabble, though, Romney has another problem: he could face a revolt from the conservative wing of his base. Conservatives represented a small but important part of his electoral coalition, and moves to the left on social and environmental issues — which may be necessary in a liberal state like Massachusetts — could alienate them. Romney has never been popular with the small but fanatical band of supporters of former lieutenant-governor candidate James Rappaport. And the governor’s admirable recent push to enforce the implementation of clean-air laws on members of the "Filthy Five" pollution-spouting coal-burning plants has caused some conservatives to bristle. In addition, a recent survey of 471 "fiscal conservatives," conducted by the conservative Beacon Hill Institute and made available to the Phoenix, contained some warning signs for Romney. The establishment of casino gambling was supported by only a two percent margin — 45 to 43 — and almost two-thirds opposed balancing the budget by cutting local aid, a key component of the 2003 Romney budget plan.

That said, the GOP may be picking up new sources of support. Michael Stedman, a one-time spokesperson in the Dukakis administration, is the new chair of the New England Chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) — the local branch of the Washington-based group that brought both then–Texas governor Bush and then–Massachusetts governor Cellucci to Israel in 1998. Stedman claims that since July 2002, the group’s numbers have swelled to between 400 and 500 — many of them Russian émigrés who came to the US during the Reagan era — who have been animated by Bush’s support for Israel and handling of the war on terror. While many of the group’s concerns are international in scope, the RJC has reached out to Crate in an attempt to meet with the new state Republican chair. "The goal right now is to help Republican candidates who are sympathetic to the Jewish community here," Stedman says. "We can shed light on and publicize the voting records of those Democrats who have a poor record on Israel. We are meeting with people in the state party now to start recruiting and supporting Republican candidates who are simpatico with our view and with whom we feel comfortable."

A quick glance at the 2002 voting results suggests that Stedman’s group is anything but a mass movement. In two of the communities with the highest percentages of Jewish voters and whose House representatives are among the most progressive, Newton and Brookline, the numbers suggest the RJC has a long way to go. Romney lost Newton by almost a three-to-two margin; he lost Brookline by two to one. Nevertheless, the RJC could represent an ancillary fundraising base for the state GOP — although there is no official connection between them. Furthermore, the mere existence of such a fanciful-sounding hybrid suggests there may be more untapped Republican-leaning sentiment in Massachusetts than many suspect.

With or without new friends — and enemies — the central question for Romney is whether the Republicans can turn their dream of making Massachusetts a two-party state into reality. Doing that will require, at the very least, a concerted and personal effort on the governor’s part that he may or may not be ready to expend.

Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com