Call it the Scott Brown Revival; rejuvenated Republicans organizing in Democrat heartland

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.

“Since Scott Brown, the interest has exploded,” said Karen MacNutt of Dorchester, who took over Boston’s Republican City Committee, which, until November, had not met in five years

Dissed by Obama in July, Cambridge police endorse Republican Scott Brown for Senate in MA

In July, the very last time Barack Obama held a press conference, Obama took the time to offer his thoughts on the professionalism of the Cambridge Police Department in their arrest of his friend Henry “Skip” Gates. After saying that Sergeant James Crowley “acted stupidly” despite not having “all the facts,” several of Crowley’s colleagues expressed their support of him by announcing that they wouldn’t vote for Obama in 2012. Their union has found a way to make their displeasure known much earlier — by endorsing Scott Brown over Martha Coakley:

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There are a couple of points of embarrassment here. First, Coakley’s husband, as Killion notes, was a former Cambridge police officer. Not only didn’t that give Coakley an edge, the 11-2 vote shows that it didn’t make much difference at all. Note too that the union opposes Coakley expressly on ObamaCare, but from the perspective of protecting their collective bargaining ability. They’re accusing her of being more or less anti-union, an interesting charge coming from any union towards a Democrat.

The other embarrassment comes with having an AG get opposed by a police union, which we saw in Worcester as well. We missed another instance of a police organization turning its back on the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the state earlier this week, too — when the State Police Association of Massachusetts endorsed Scott Brown.