I think the main division in MA isn’t by party, but by insider vs. outsider. Every election seems to include someone saying “I’m not part of the Beacon Hill gang, I’m going to go in there and clean up” vs. someone saying “I know how to make government work for you”. The local mass media is also generally aligned inside/outside - the Globe can be relied upon to support the insider, the Herald the outsider. Party isn’t a factor, except to the extent that we like to split tickets (“to keep 'em both honest”) as much as any other Americans.
Thumbnail summary of recent GOP governors:
Frank Sargent - elected as a liberal environmentalist, largely as backlash to the leveling of the West End by the insiders, promised to eliminate the freeway projects inside 128 and did so.
Bill Weld - elected after John Silber, who had looked like a shoo-in, blew up at Natalie Jacobson in an interview. Silber ran on a conservative shake-things-up platform, but rapidly looked like too big a prick to give the job to, while Weld was an affable mod-lib. So what about party labels, he was more in tune with what we wanted, and played the inside game (including reelection) until he got bored. He’s been named by The Great Namer as a candidate for Governor of New York next year.
Paul Cellucci - inherited the job when Weld quit, completely unimpressive, but part of the insiders. Had a struggle to win the election against Scott Harshbarger, who was unable to get funding or mass-media support (even from the Herald; he wasn’t a bombthrower).
Jane Swift - inherited the job when Cellucci in turn quit, looked too arrogant, got nudged out of the primaries by a sweet bit of backstabbing by Christy Mihos. She tried unsuccessfully to fire him from the Turnpike Authority, in turn he financed and publicized a poll showing that Mitt Romney would be a much stronger candidate in the next election.
Romney - elected as an honest, efficient business manager outsider straight from fixing the SLC Olympics, narrow win over insider Shannon O’Brien who wasn’t able to shake a cloud of suspicion over her performance as Treasurer.
Looks like the end of the line here, though, unless Mihos decides to challenge LtG Healey, which might be fun.