Given that Democrats are favored to win the June 25 special general election in Massachusetts to fill the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, the political world has focused more on Tuesday’s Democratic primary between Reps. Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch.

But don’t lose sight on the Republican primary -- not only because Republicans can win statewide office in Massachusetts (just ask Mitt Romney and Scott Brown), but also because the GOP race features a battle of former Romney aides.

These aides have fanned themselves out and are vigorously -- and, at times, viciously -- swatting at each other in support of their chosen candidates: former US Attorney Mike Sullivan, State Representative Dan Winslow, and Navy SEAL-turned-businessman Gabriel Gomez. 

A recent Western New England University poll -- conducted during a period of time before and after last week's Boston bombings -- found Gomez in the lead at 33 percent among likely Republican voters, Sullivan at 27 percent, and Winslow far behind at 9 percent. Gomez is far ahead in the money race (raising about $600,000 for the period ending April 10), and Winslow has racked up endorsements from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

Sullivan is being advised by Beth Myers and Peter Flaherty, two extremely loyal Romney insiders. Both served under the former GOP presidential nominee during his time as governor of Massachusetts -- Myers was his chief of staff and Flaherty was deputy chief of staff. They both remained in Romney's close inner circle during his presidential bids in 2008 and 2012.

Sullivan served as head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from 2006-2009 under George W. Bush, and currently serves as a partner in former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Boston law firm. On Saturday, he released a statement calling for Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s citizenship to be revoked, compared with his GOP rivals who wants Tsarnaev treated as an enemy combatant.

Winslow is a former Romney staffer himself -- he says he was the third hire after Romney became governor in 2002, serving as the governor’s chief legal counsel for two years.  (He now holds former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown's old seat in the state Senate.)  Winslow's communications director, Charlie Pearce, worked for the Romney presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and his campaign manager, Bobby Talbot, was a Florida aide for the Romney campaign last year.

Winslow is viewed as less conservative than his opponents, and he drew attention to his support for marriage equality by recently filing a query with the Federal Election Commission as to how to file campaign donations made by legally married same-sex couples.

Gomez, meanwhile, has the most Romney staffers on his payroll, and he’s perhaps most Romney-esque in his messaging -- constantly emphasizing he’s not a “career politician” and referring to his (lucrative) time in the private sector. His campaign is being run by Jill  Neunaber, who worked for Romney's 2012 effort in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Romney’s former communications director, Gail Gitcho, serves as senior advisor to Gomez; former Director of Operations Will Ritter is the press secretary; former aide Ryan Coleman is political director; and former Director of Digital Rapid Response Lenny Alcivar is communications director. Additionally, Bradley D. Crate, chief financial officer for the campaign, and Kerry Healey, Romney’s former lieutenant governor, also are on board, as well as a smattering of other advance team and Ann Romney aides are also in the mix.  Former Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom is advising the political action committee supporting Gomez.

Neunaber believes that her new boss shares some similarities with her old one. "I think they both run an organization similarly -- they pay close attention to details, they're numbers guys, they want to see how you're moving the needle on a daily basis."

But these former aides have also battled over one of Romney’s biggest legacy: his Massachusetts health-care law.

In a recent debate, Sullivan was asked about addressing entitlements within President Obama's newly proposed budget plan. He quickly pivoted from discussing the costs of Medicare to a new hit on Winslow -- tying his opponent to Romney’s health law, pejoratively referred to as “RomneyCare”.

"Dan essentially has talked previously with support in regard to the Massachusetts health-care program. I understood he actually worked on it before he left," Sullivan said.  "I would not use that as a model, Dan, in terms of a national health-care program. I would repeal ObamaCare. This is a big difference between Dan Winslow and myself. He essentially believes that ObamaCare should stay enforced."

Winslow immediately shot back that he had nothing to do with Romney's health-care law.  "I didn't have a hand in the drafting of RomneyCare... On ObamaCare, if there's a vote to repeal, of course I would vote to repeal."

Later, Winslow explained to NBC News that, having served under Romney for only the first two years of his term as governor, he had "zero" to do with the state health-care law.  "In the moment, I was just so stunned that Mike was throwing Obama talking points at me." 

But Winslow spokesman Charlie Pearce says he's confounded as to why Sullivan would be so misguided on the issue, given Sullivan’s connection to Myers and Flaherty.

"If Beth and Peter were behind that attack, they'd be savaging their own record," says Pearce.

Gomez did not comment on the exchange, and one of his staffers didn’t think the connection between “RomneyCare” and Winslow was particularly ill-conceived. "I think he was really trying to make a statement about Winslow running around the state constantly saying that he did things single handedly that Romney really did,” said the aide. “Sullivan was trying to hold his feet to the fire, calling his bluff."

Sullivan's campaign declined to make anyone available for comment on the issue, despite repeated requests.

Even given this back-and-forth over Massachusetts’ health-care law, there seems to be an overall feeling of camaraderie among the three campaigns. Winslow tells NBC that the bonds shared between the staffers extend long beyond this moment in time.  "This is a little family tussle, and we're all going to be family afterwards."  

Ritter from the Gomez camp concurs.  "As long as it's not lies and it's not personal, everybody's got to do what they've got to do. And after May 1, we'll all be working together -- I think that's pretty clear. There's no bad blood."

Politico has reported that Mitt Romney has sent an email to bundlers and large donors, asking them to participate in a summit for his son Tagg's investment firm, Solamere Capital, which the former Republican presidential nominee recently joined.

NBC News has learned the Solamere conference will take place from June 4-8 at Deer Valley's Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah. But NBC has not confirmed Romney's participation.

Politico says that the cost to attend to attend the summit is $5,000. “In the span of four days, we will have a chance to hear from political, business and other thought leaders and spend time together enjoying a variety of outdoor activities,” Romney said in the email. “We are calling the event, Experts and Enthusiasts. As we only have capacity for a small group of people to be part of this gathering, invitations will be kept to a limited group of industry and thought leaders.”

Sources had told NBC that when Romney first accepted the job with Solamere -- also run by his campaign's top finance official Spencer Zwick -- he only wanted to be involved with advising on business transactions, not fundraising.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus met with a small group of black Republicans in Brooklyn as part of a "Listening Tour" effort, aimed at understanding what went wrong in the 2012 election, and how the party can improve its outreach, particularly to minorities.

The meeting was closed to the press, but Priebus talked to reporters before his discussion at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York.

"We can't just be a party of purity," Priebus said. "We have to be a welcoming party." He added, "We gotta put a smile on our face. We can't just go from one mad interview to the next about the national debt and deficit. We have to tell the story of our party that's inspirational, and we have to be in it for the long haul."

Priebus also conceded that Republicans have "a real quality of contacts issue. ... What I'm talking about is showing up four months before an election, and the other side, who's been in the community for four years straight."

Not only has that method proved ineffective, Priebus said, but, "Secondly -- it's not right."

The trip comes ahead of RNC findings, to be released Monday, from its "Growth and Opportunity Project," the group's autopsy of the 2012 campaign. Priebus has engaged in multiple such meetings with minority groups across the country in recent months -- from California to Atlanta to New York.

Communications Director Sean Spicer said, as Priebus spoke inside, that the common gripe Priebus has heard in these sessions, from disaffected voters, is, "You can't just show up."

Spicer elaborated that taking a hard look at the issue, and figuring out how and where to place personnel across the country, would be a main initiative of the RNC's going forward. It was something that was discussed at a major Republican donor retreat held in Coral Gables, FL, this past weekend as well.

Republicans got walloped with minority voters in the 2012 election. President Obama won 93% of African Americans, 73% of Asians, and 71% of Latinos.

"The key thing now isn't to say, in four years from now, we need to get 40 or 50 percent of the vote -- that would be silly," Spicer said. "But I think you can say that 7 percent is unacceptable. We need 9, then we need 11, then we need 14."

RNC Committeewoman Dr. Ada Fisher, the first and only African-American female to be elected to the body, came up from North Carolina to support Priebus at today's event. She contended in an interview with NBC that President Obama largely won such a high percentage of American-American voters by making a campaign promise to "go give people stuff we can't afford."

"What we're doing now is coming out of the shadows," Fisher said. "Just because you're fiscally conservative doesn't mean you're racist and mean."

GOProud, a Republican gay-rights group, is still not officially invited to attend CPAC, next week's conservative conference in the D.C. area -- but it will be on site.

Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud's co-founder and executive director, will be participating in a panel happening at the same time as CPAC, in the same building as CPAC, sponsored by one of the same hosts of CPAC.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is sponsoring the panel entitled “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing Tolerance Out of the Closet.” As of this morning, panelists included Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Liz Mair and Jonah Goldberg.

Today, however, the group added LaSalvia to the group, as well as conservative writers Margaret Hoover and Jennifer Rubin.

LaSalvia is excited to participate, and says his understanding is that CPAC is unhappy with the additions.

The panel is not an official CPAC event, but does appear on the master schedule that will go out to CPAC participants as one of many available options to attend on the first day of the conference -- March 14 -- at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

“CEI is interested in advancing the cause of smaller government and liberty, and looking for ways to reach out to new constituencies,” says Christine Hall, director of communications for CEI. “To the extent we can partner with groups like GOProud and people who share our values and goals -- we want to be able to do that.”

Hall says that CEI has been a co-sponsor of CPAC for many years, and has not gotten any pushback since making the GOProud addition.

The American Conservative Union, the main group that organizes CPAC, confirmed that.

"CPAC sponsors are provided use of our facilities for a two-hour period during our three-day conference to discuss issues of their choosing. We don’t select nor censor the content of their panels. There is a requirement of all of our participants: civility and decorum toward the host, participating organizations and our guests," said ACU Executive Director Gregg Keller in a statement to NBC News.

GOProud had previously participated at CPAC, but was uninvited this year and last year, sparking controversy among gay-right supporters. CPAC Chair Al Cardenas said in an interview last week that GOProud has acted inappropriately as guests in years past.