Cellucci: GOP can look to 1986 for inspiration

Former Governor Paul Cellucci had some words of inspiration for the state Republican party when he addressed the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce this week, drawing parallels to 1986.

“People said the Republican party was dead” after Democrat Michael Dukakis claimed a decisive victory in his re-election campaign for Governor that year, Cellucci said. But within four years, the GOP had secured 16 Senate seats and captured the corner office, ending 20 years of Democratic rule and marking the start of an uninterrupted string of Republican Governors in Massachusetts that was broken only by Deval Patrick’s 2006 election win.