“Make ticket-splitting great again!”

It may not roll off the tongue easily. And the obvious allusion to a certain candidate’s slogan is actually the last thing he’d want to do. But the message might be the essence of Republican Charlie Baker’s reelection effort next year once he ends the non-suspense and declares that he’ll seek a second term as governor. And some of the same may hold true for Democrat Elizabeth Warren as she faces her first reelection race.

Both candidates will need to win over a healthy swath of Massachusetts voters who are not registered under either party banner, a group that now makes up the majority of the state’s registered voters, including some who cast ballots for the Republican governor and Democratic senator.

The Boston Globe’s Jim O’Sullivan says the election poses a trickier challenge for Baker in a state that still heavily favors Democrats. Baker recently told his campaign fundraising team he is aiming to capture as much as one-third of the Democratic vote and three-fifths of independents not enrolled in either party. At nearly every turn, the Republican governor looks to shed his party label and proclaim himself the state’s practically-minded problem-solver.

The latest parlor game involves thinking about how would-be opponents to either pol would affect the prospects of the incumbent in the other race. The consensus among Baker types seems to be that it would be better for him if Warren draws a more moderate challenger such as Gabriel Gomez and not hard-right state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who championed Donald Trump’s cause here and could draw in the president and nationalize the race in a way that Baker desperately wants to avoid.  

The marquee catch for Baker in the ticket-splitting sweepstakes would be to win the support of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. The labor-loving Democrat has increasingly tacked left on most issues, but he has also formed a good relationship with Baker.

Walsh tells O’Sullivan that voters want a senator “who’s going to protect them” (Warren would no doubt substitute “fight for them”) and a governor “who’s going to run the state.” He says people “differentiate between the two.”  Walsh says he hasn’t decided yet where he’ll throw his support in next year’s governor’s race.

His predecessor, Tom Menino, played footsie with Republican Paul Cellucci in the 1998 governor’s race, one of many Democrats who left their party’s nominee, Scott Harshbarger, dangling in the wind, though he stopped short of a cross-party endorsement. That was the same election in which then-Democratic House speaker, Tom Finneran, famously said that before he could jump on any Harshbarger bandwagon he’d have to assess whether he was “going loony left.” Of course, to raise the question was to answer it.

Lots of ticket-splitting also took place in 1990, when John Kerry notched a 13-point reelection victory on the same day that Baker mentor Bill Weld grabbed the governor’s office back for the GOP. (Of course, Weld also won votes from lots of Democratic voters who thought he was the more liberal choice compared with their party nominee John Silber.)

Yes, we live in hyper-polarized political times, which makes ticket-splitting seem like an anachronistic throwback to earlier days. It may be rarer, but it’s not extinct. Or at least that’s what Charlie Baker is counting on.

–MICHAEL JONAS

BEACON HILL

House Speaker Robert DeLeo says Gov. Charlie Baker hasn’t told him how he plans to nip and tuck his way to a balanced budget this year. (State House News) Meanwhile, Michael Widmer, the former head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the shortfall in fiscal 2018 could be $1 billion, too big to nip and tuck away. (CommonWealth)

John Webb, who owns Webb Transportation Services, raises concerns about Uber, taxes, and Medicaid assessments with DeLeo at a North Shore Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” he said. (Salem News)

A Herald editorial breathes a sigh of relief at word from DeLeo that he is not keen on seeing movement with a bill that would end an agreement by which the state Department of Correction notifies federal immigration officials of the impending release of serious offenders who can be swiftly deported.  

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

The attorney general’s office has weighed in on a nearly 50-year dispute in Scituate over conservation land, saying town officials wrongfully transferred six acres of the Ellis Estate for construction of a new police and fire complex. (Patriot Ledger)

The Somerset Zoning Board of Appeals postponed a vote on issuing a permit for the controversial $3 million expansion of Bristol Marina but the three members made it clear had it gone to a vote, it would lose 2-1. (Herald News)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Written testimony from fired FBI director James Comey, submitted in advance of his appearance today before a Senate committee, offers a strong account of a president trying “to impede an investigation.” (Boston Globe) Comey’s politically savvy statement shows why presidents are so reluctant to get rid of FBI directors. (New York Times) Herald columnist Kimberly Atkins says the details of Comey’s live testimony today will point to how much trouble this all is for Trump. Fellow Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld says today’s must-watch hearing could prove to be “a big bust.”

ELECTIONS

Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte of Montana apologizes for body-slamming reporter Ben Jacobs and pledges $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. (Time)

Britons go to the polls today as Prime Minister Theresa May, once cruising to victory with a 20-point lead in surveys, is now facing a potentially devastating upset that some say hold echoes of Hillary Clinton’s loss. (National Review)

A Lowell Sun editorial urges lawmakers to think deep and hard about all the entrepreneurs who will move themselves and their businesses across the border to New Hampshire if Massachusetts approves the millionaire’s tax.

Casella Waste Systems says it plans to spend $100,000 on a landfill ballot question in Southbridge. The amount is far more than its opponents, who plan to spend $8,000. (Telegram & Gazette)

The ultra-conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is taking credit for forcing Democratic state Rep. Michelle DuBois of Brockton to return $107 in campaign donations sher received through a social media appeal connected to her warning to illegal immigrants about a rumored raid by federal law enforcement. (The Enterprise)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A new report from The Boston Foundation finds Latinos, who make up 20 percent of Boston’s population, are the fastest growing group in the city but one in three Latinos over the age of 25 don’t have a high school diploma and one in four are not proficient in English, obstacles that make it hard for them to find good-paying jobs. (Greater Boston)

Tobacco wholesales, who have a monopoly on serving as the conduit to retail outlets selling cigarettes, want to own the same turf for marijuana. (Boston Globe)

The House is set to gut the post-recession Dodd-Frank Act regulating financial institutions but it will be a tough sell in the Senate because it would require Democrat support to make it to the president. (New York Times)

EDUCATION

Members of the Framingham School Committee say the teacher evaluations put in place by the state five years ago amount to an unfunded mandate that costs the town in excess of $1 million a year and are asking the State Auditor to confirm that opinion so they can get reimbursement. (MetroWest Daily News)

The principal of Brookline’s pre-K through eighth grade Heath School comes out as transgender. (Boston Globe)

Gloria Larson, a one-time top official in the Weld administration and former co-chair of the MassINC board of the directors, announced she will step down a year from now as president of Bentley University. (Boston Globe)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

A former Mass. General Hospital anesthesiologist has filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital alleging it endangered patients by double-booking surgeries for the same time period. (Boston Globe)

TRANSPORTATION

The Cape Ann Transportation Authority says it will run shuttle buses so North Shore residents can tie into a MBTA bus network filling in this summer when the commuter rail is shut down for upgrades and repairs. (Gloucester Times)

President Trump took his campaign on the road to whip up support for his trillion-dollar infrastructure plan but despite promising “everything about it is going to be right,” he has yet to offer any detail. (U.S. News & World Report)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to reopen negotiations over a settlement ordering General Electric to spend $613 on cleanup of the Housatonic River, a move that has environmentalists unsettled. (Boston Globe)

The city of Lawrence, Lawrence Community Works, and several other groups filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, alleging the operator of the city’s canals has allowed them to fall into disrepair. (Eagle-Tribune)

A number of northern gannets, large sea birds that normally spend most of their lives far out in the Atlantic and nest in northern Canada, have been found washed up on shore in Cape Cod over the past few months with no visible signs of illness or injury. (Cape Cod Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Bryce Finn, who had just graduated from Haverhill High School, is dead after opening the door to his family’s home and being gunned down by an unknown assailant. (Eagle-Tribune)

The ex-wife of an accused Quincy con man who bilked investors out of $1.5 million before fleeing has been charged with lying to investigators about not knowing his whereabouts even though officials say she rented a Florida condo for him in her name. (Patriot Ledger)

The wife of a Millbury police officer admits to filing a false burglary report to collect insurance money. Investigating officers found BLM, for Black Lives Matter, painted on her house after the alleged burglary. (Telegram & Gazette)