the last Republican to carry Connecticut in a presidential election

The Connecticut Republican party is back to the drawing board, again.     After making no gains in the legislature and losing the senate race and all five congressional races, the party is wondering where it goes next.     Mitt Romney lost the state by 18 points to President Obama, and carried one county:  Litchfield.    The last time a GOP presidential candidate won Connecticut was 1988.     The last time a Republican won a senate race here was 1982.

This Sunday on Face the State we talk about with two Republicans:   former party vice chairwoman Catherine Marx, and one of the GOP’s bright spots in 2012, State senator-elect Art Linares.    Linares is a Cuban-American from Westbrook and picked up the seat held by retiring Democrat Eileen Daily.

Marx said the party will now focus on the municipal elections next year, but no doubt the media will soon start focusing on the race for governor in 2014.   We talked about potential candidates, and I asked Marx if any of them include women.      The Democrats accused Republicans of being anti-women, and it certainly worked in the senate race, where women helped propel Chris Murphy over Linda McMahon, who failed in her second attempt to break the glass ceiling.

As for Linares, he could be a key player in Republican growth in the cities, where the party gets absolutely blown out year after year thanks to Latino voters going for Democrats.   Things are so bad, Mitt Romney got only 6% of the vote in Hartford.  Republicans didn’t even field a candidate for mayor last year, and as a result, couldn’t even get a single seat on the city council.

You can watch the entire interview this Sunday morning at 11 on Face the State, only on Channel 3.

UPDATE:  watch the segment right here: http://www.wfsb.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7941044