What no one mentions is that the Washington GOP, or at least its base, has a strong evangelical component. Going libetarianish is not really going to help. The suburbs are voting Democrat not because they are socially libertarian but because they are socially liberal, and contrary to the views of online libertarians there is a significant difference(ie. the Gay Rights movement long ago ceased being libertarian). On the other hand there a lot of socially Conservative voters that can be lost too.
The real problem for the GOP is that the voters a successful candidate needs to appeal to are so broad that no one person can satisfy all of them. This is the same problem the party has in New Hampshire. Could more than 50% vote for a Republican? Yes. Could a single Republican get over 50%? Unlikely to impossible.
I know loads of evangelicals that are of the same type as eastern Washington ones. They wouldn't vote for a democrat just because the republican is a little socially liberal in the West. Sure they wouldn't enthusiastically vote for the republican but they would still do it.
Evangelicals in the West are a completley different breed than those in the South. Along with having far-right social views, they generally have Goldwater-esque views on the economy, and military. There are differences where you are at but I can confidently say that if Romney or someone similar to him was nominated most evangelicals in the West could stomach voting for him over the communist, Islamic, fascist, homosexual loving Obama. It would be a different story in the South, where people would just stay home.
