WESTBROOK – Now that Westbrook’s Charter Commission has begun its work, it might be a good time for the city GOP to raise issues with the city’s partisan elections.

For all intents and purposes, the local Republican Committee is struggling to stay afloat at best, and on its deathbed at worst. While Republicans elsewhere in the state and country have rejoiced at recent election gains and the backlash against the Democratic Party, Westbrook remains a Democratic stronghold. There is no leadership within the GOP to rise up and challenge that dominance.

On the City Council, five of the six members are Democrats. The School Committee is entirely Democratic except for chairman Ed Symbol, who was formerly Republican but is now independent.

But does it even matter what party local officials are affiliated with? Now that the charter commission is reviewing all aspects of city government, said Symbol, why not ask them to look closely at the issue?

“I don’t think party matters anymore,” Symbol said Tuesday. “The more I was on the City Council and the school board, the more I realized it didn’t matter and I got labeled a lot.”

He said he would like the charter commission to consider the issue as it reviews the city charter, a process that began on Jan. 13.

There are fewer registered Republicans in Westbrook than Democrats or independents. According to clerk Lynda Adams, of the 11,476 registered voters, there are 4,485 Democrats, 2,762 Republicans, 3,812 unenrolled and 417 Green. Republican numbers have actually gone up since last year, when there were 2,622 registered, but the number is still dwarfed by the Democrats.

“Democrats hold the lion’s share of votes and are well represented,” said John O’Hara, the only Republican on the City Council. “People do vote straight party lines and that’s very difficult to combat.”

Symbol said it leads to frustration for Republican candidates, who simply cannot overcome party politics to get elected to local boards.

“It’s frustrating for the Republican Party when they have great candidates who can’t get leverage because of the ‘R’ next to their name,” he said.

Adams, a former Republican turned Democrat, agreed local elections would be fairer if parties did not come into play, but she also suggested the issue goes beyond that.

Adams was a Republican until she ran for city clerk in 2007. She lost the Republican nomination to Deb Frank, so she became a Democrat and won the election.

“The Democratic Committee is way more organized,” she said.

“The Democratic Party is successful because we organize and we work very hard at running for office,” said Brendan Rielly, the president of the City Council. He added that the caucus system has helped Democrats identify strong and talented candidates.

He agreed that “there is not a Democratic or Republican position” when it comes to local government, but said the Republican Party’s woes have more to do with organization than an inherent disadvantage due to the political makeup of the city.

The city’s Republican leaders admit they are not as organized as the Democrats. The Westbrook Republican Committee website has not been updated for months. The most recent caucus notice is from March, while the last meeting notice was in October 2009.

Martha Day, the committee’s chairwoman, admits responsibility for much of that inactivity.

“We haven’t met in, gosh, it’s been months,” she said.

She said it has always been a small group and even when meetings were a regular occurrence it was hard to get many people together.

Day said she is the last person who held the title of committee chair, but she no longer considers herself the chair because other obligations have pulled her away from the duty. No one else is clamoring to take over that role, though.

“I wasn’t hearing, ‘Get out of the way so we can take over,’ because I happily would have,” she said.

Bill Holmes, the committee’s vice chairman, said they have not been active since Ray Richardson was the chairman. He could not think of anyone offhand who could reinvigorate the party.

O’Hara, a former Democrat, said that even with a disorganized party, a strong candidate could break through in the next election.

“I couldn’t have been elected without cross-party support,” he said.

Even so, he said he would like to see political affiliations removed from the ballot. He said it could impact elections since there is a view of the Republican Party as the party of the rich.

“We’re all struggling here at the local level,” he said. “People should look and vote for who represents them the best.”

This is one issue the charter commission could discuss as it continues to review the city’s 111-year-old charter. The commission held its first meeting on Jan. 13, where the members elected Democrat Drew Gattine to be chairman.

The commission is meeting again on Feb. 3 before a public meeting to receive input from the community on Feb. 10.