Call me naive, but I believe in the democratic form of government; and I believe a system that has at least two viable political parties produces the best elected leaders; and my cynical moods evaporate when idealistic young people endeavor to run for public office, especially for the D.C. Council.

Silly boy. I forgot we live in a one-party town where the minuscule Republican Party continues to play the fool.

Wait — you didn’t know we had a GOP in D.C.? Is that because registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 10-1? Or because even council members elected as Republicans renounce their ties and become independents (David Catania)?

Or because the only Republican elected to office in the capital city since 1974 is Carol Schwartz, who faces re-election to her at-large council seat this fall?

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Or is it because the congenitally elitist D.C. Republicans are holed up in the white, wealthy world of far Northwest?

What this party needs is fresh blood, new thoughts, members under the age of 70. What the crusty musty GOP needs is a guy like Patrick Mara.

Mara is a 33-year-old native of Rhode Island. He came to D.C. in 1996 to work for then-Sen. John Chaffee, a well-respected moderate Republican.

He worked for Chaffee until the senator died; then he joined a lobbying firm to work on clean energy and technology issues. Along the way he got an MBA from Babson College.

“I guess you could say I was a Rockefeller Republican,” Mara tells me. He looks the part, despite Irish roots that might pull him to the left.

Mara bought a place in Columbia Heights and started to attend local Republican dinners and receptions. He got on the D.C. Republican mailing list. “D.C. was my home,” he says. “I wanted to be involved.”

He got so into local politics that his friends suggested he run for office. Running in solidly Democratic Ward 1 was not an option; he considered an at-large seat and checked out Carol Schwartz’s record. “Shocked” at some of her votes, he filed papers to take her on in the primary; he started going door to door to get signatures on petitions.

Then he got a call from Paul Kraney, the local party’s executive director.

“You will be blackballed by the party if you run against Carol Schwartz,” Kraney said, according to Mara.

The next encouraging call came from local GOP Chairman Robert Kabel, who said: “Your future in Republican politics here is over if you run against Carol.”

Kraney told me he was “perplexed” to read that Mara was running in a newspaper report: “He never came to us.” He called the upstart campaign “irresponsible.” He told me: “Re-electing Carol Schwartz is our top priority.”

Indeed, beating Schwartz will be tough. The only pol who is more loved and has better name recognition is Marion Barry. Independent Adam Clampitt is already running an uphill campaign.

Still, squelching a primary challenge seems downright undemocratic — and useless.

“I’m going to push on,” Mara says. “If anything, this has reinvigorated me.”