LANSING – In the ebb and flow of political cycles, the Michigan Republican Party had one of its historic lows on Tuesday, even losing its advantage in the Supreme Court as a Barack Obama-led Democratic ticket scored a series of victories up and down the ticket.

Democrats had greater overall resources, for the second straight election, national issues ran their way, and the additional offices that tilted to them promised to only exacerbate the challenges for the GOP to regain its footing. The damage was considerable, though some said it could have been worse and presidential candidate John McCain still receives some blame for pulling his campaign out of the state, which undercut the party’s ground game.

For an out of power party, the elemental need will be to raise enough money to compete for all of the offices statewide which will be up for election, as well as the state Senate – still in GOP control – the state House, Congressional contests and another court battle.

And then there is the expected battle within the party among fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and moderates, among others, for direction.

Standing in charge for now is Party Chair Saul Anuzis, though talk is quickly growing of challenges to his continued tenure and names are being floated to run for the post even if he chooses to seek another term. Ironically, his name continues to surface as a candidate for the chair of the Republican National Committee.

Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson, whose re-election left him as the highest-profile Republican to win on Tuesday, is confident of a comeback much as it did following the 49-state sweep by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (giving state Democrats a high mark of 73 state House seats and 23 Senate seats, but the GOP grabbed majorities back two years later) and following the 1974 Watergate scandal (that took 9 years to regain a majority in the Senate).

“We Republicans are caucusing in a phone booth,” Patterson said in assessing that voters again slapped down the party out of anti-Bush anger. “I’m enthused that we will rebuild our party but it’s going to take some time.”

Part of his optimism also is founded on the political pendulum swinging back in the mid-year elections and in the wake of eight years of a Democratic gubernatorial administration.

He said Oakland County is roughly divided into thirds between the two parties and voters who consider themselves independents, and leaders have to figure out how to appeal to that independent group.

“We’ve got to define our message, tell who we represent and that we’re the party that stands for less taxes, a balanced budget, a less intrusive government and reliance on the individual,” he said. The anti-tax sentiment that the GOP thought was a political gift when Democrats pushed through a budget-balancing tax increase a year ago got lost in the anti-Bush sentiment, he added.

Anuzis, who labeled the 2006 results as a tsunami that swept away several Republicans around the state and returned the state House to Democratic hands said he is optimistic the party can come back by returning to its roots. He has been critical of national Republicans for hurting the party generally with high spending and ethics lapses.

“I believe that when our party once again adheres to our core values and beliefs, and can again demonstrate to America that we can be trusted on those issues, we will make a comeback – stronger than ever,” he said early Wednesday when the election results were clear.

Patterson said he told Anuzis he has to go to work on rebuilding the party with the foundation blocks available, noting for instance that the Oakland County Board of Commissioners remained in GOP hands. And he said, “Those of us who survived will have to get involved.” He said he did not blame Anuzis for the party’s showing, saying instead he is still “smarting” over the McCain campaign’s decision to leave the state.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), who confessed he was rattled by the concern that an effective leader like Brooks had about losing, also choose to focus on areas of the state where the party did well. “We need to come together, look at what our mission is, which to me the most important is to look at smaller government and start talking about the things that are the foundation of the party.”

Bishop said McCain’s concession speech captured what a lot of Republicans want to do: put aside our differences and move forward on the issues we can agree on.”

Bishop said he was surprised no Democrat lost because of tax votes, but agreed with others in the party national issues overrode voters’ attention to that issue. And he said the withdrawal of McCain from the state took away an opportunity to tie Obama to Governor Jennifer Granholm and her unpopularity.

Rep. Brian Calley (R-Portland), campaign chair for House Republicans, said the goal of the GOP has to be to look at their efforts from top to bottom and one of the first things that has to go out the door is the idea that scoring insider baseball political wins is more important than working to get policy measures approved.

He said focusing on working class people who are struggling and creating jobs will be key for Republican messaging and policy efforts heading into 2010. He said taxes, smaller government and ethical and transparency government issues fit into that argument.

While some of that message was successful this election cycle in House districts, Calley said Republicans got swept up in factors out of their control, especially the anti-President George W. Bush sentiment among the electorate.

By the silver lining in the election is that Calley said Republicans presented a better message to their donors, who were upset with spending money on losing candidates. He said making incumbents more responsible for their wins and making data-driven expenditures to first time candidates paid off and will continue to do so down the road.

Looking to 2010, Calley said Republicans will be in a better position to draw distinctions with Democrats in the minds of the voters because the attention will be on state, not national politics, with the gubernatorial, attorney general and secretary of state races open due to term limits.

“We are rebuilding everything (right now),” he said. “And I can’t help but be excited.”

House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) agreed that getting Michigan Republicans out of the shadow of Bush will help the GOP changes two years from now.

He argued that while Republicans did lose nine House seats, it could have been worse given the lackluster performance at the top of the ticket by John McCain.

Asked whether Republicans have missed some opportunities on their own in the House by focusing on having Democrats make some bad votes, DeRoche said he couldn’t think of a single issue negotiated over the past two years that the GOP could have done better by doing something different.

He lambasted all of the Democratic proposals over the past two years, except for the Great Lakes Water Compact, which he said was the only proposal to make sense.

As for control of state government going forward, DeRoche said Senate Republicans are now the most powerful of the GOP in the state and should use that power to their advantage because they will have final say on all policy matters.

Greg McNeilly, director of the Great Lakes Education Project and a former executive director of the state Republican Party, assessed a landscape that he said was not as bleak as some would paint. “It was not as bad as it should have been,” he said. “The polling and the architecture and the resource situation, you add it all up and we should have lost more than nine seats (in the state House).”

He said the victory by Patterson and keeping the county commission in G