The on-going nowhere of East Hartford's Republican Party organization continues; the voters who pull its election levers are another matter. Over far too many years, with a variety of attempted formats, trying first one thing, then another, the end results have proven frustrating to say the least. The most recent effort by its leader who seemed a major effort should be to fill all ballots with the best names possible, then letting the candidates promote themselves. Early results: the leader resigned his post the day before the election evidently seeing a sure defeat at the polls. He was correct. For that he sustained a hit by another unsucessful GOP leader of years past, not warranted to be sure. For proof, many years ago that same leader put together a council slate of top Republicans including himself. The council remained with the Democrats.

Some make comparisions between these on-going losses at the polls with the lone GOP party organization-led victory in the 1965 town election. The only other Republican win occurred when large segments of the core Democratic Party rebelled against its mayor resulting in a new administraton that promptly demonstrated poor management capabilities.

There's a major difference between a party-led effort and one "led" by only its candidates. The reasons are apparent. An organized party machine works and speaks with a unified voice. Each candidate stays generally within that pre-determined approach and embellishes it with personal thoughts. The opposite approach with no overall campaign thrust usually appears as it really is, a series of one person campaigns.

Because winning for the Democrats has been almost a sure thing even that party has become lax in recent campaigns. Yet the inability of the Republican organization to mount an effective campaign shows. It is quite difficult to find people who are sufficiently versed in issues and who have the courage to exploit them. Otherwise the party leader assumes that role something not done in the last election.

There are many facets to a campaign to achieve success. In recent years there has no visible evidence the GOP has tried to make use of them, but surely many such techniques and procedures are well known to long-term committee persons. So, the question remains: Why?

Some of the procedures not in use will be explored next.

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