If you look at all the anti-Democratic numbers in today’s poll on the Governor’s race and the Legislature’s performance, plus the pro-Republican numbers in Castleton State’s earlier poll on the Attorney General race, you see a remarkable consistency.

Every number that’s pro-Republican or anti-Democrat is somewhere between 23 and 31 percent.

That’s the Republican base vote as it exists today — less than one-third of the state’s electorate. And that’s the uphill battle before the VTGOP this year. (Which is why Don Turner is merely hoping to hold onto his tiny minority in the House.)

And it’s why any candidate who campaigns in Vermont on the basic national Republican template has very little chance of winning: that stuff just doesn’t have broad enough appeal in Vermont. So as most state Republicans tack to the right, in lockstep with the national party, they’re decreasing their chances of winning in November.