State Democrats named Gus Bickford their party chairman and offered up some hints about how they plan to take on Gov. Charlie Baker in 2018.

Bickford, who beat out a pair of Steves (Stephen Kerrigan, the party’s 2014 lieutenant governor nominee, and Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins), said the successful campaign to defeat a ballot question that would have expanded the number of charter schools offers the Democrats a blueprint on how to connect with voters at the local level and through social media. He said he intends to follow that blueprint in attacking Baker’s budget priorities. His allies also said Baker is vulnerable on his bid to privatize many of the T’s operations.

Bickford, who runs the political consulting firm Factotum, is well-known to Democratic insiders. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee up until he won his new post, and he served as executive director of the party in the 1990s. He has worked on the campaigns of US Rep. Niki Tsongas, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Hillary Clinton, and served as a consultant to the group opposing Question 2 on charter schools.

John Walsh, who helped engineer a grassroots campaign that propelled Deval Patrick to the governor’s office in 2007 and served as party chairman for many years, backed Bickford. He said Baker may be vulnerable for adopting “a nasty anti-Democratic agenda” that includes efforts to privatize services at the T. The state party is expected to take up a resolution at its next meeting to oppose further privatization efforts at the transit agency.

While Massachusetts Democrats now have a new leader, unseating Baker won’t be easy. His popularity in the polls remains very high and he is highly regarded inside and outside the state as a Mr. Fix-it willing to work with Democrats on tackling tough issues.  Governing magazine just named him one of its eight public officials of the year. “It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like Charlie Baker,” read the first sentence of the magazine’s profile of the governor.

Yes, Baker didn’t fare well in the recent election. He led the losing sides on both the charter schools ballot question and marijuana legalization, but it’s hard to see how his stance on those two issues will be a major campaign theme in 2018. Some strategists even think his losing efforts introduced him to new constituencies and may pay dividends when he runs for governor.

As for MBTA privatization, it was the Democratic-controlled Legislature that gave the governor a three-year window to more easily privatize services at the T. And while Democrats seem eager to take the side of public sector unions, it’s unclear whether voters really oppose privatization. As Boston Globe columnist Dante Ramos points out, riders just want the T to work. If the governor can fix the T, or even improve its operations, he will be hard to beat.

BRUCE MOHL

BEACON HILL 

Attorney General Maura Healey sets up a hate crime hotline. (Masslive)

Governing magazine honors Gov. Charlie Baker as one of eight public officials of the year. The magazine’s profile of him is here.

Outgoing state Sen. Ben Downing, a big advocate of solar power on Beacon Hill, takes a job as vice president of new market development at solar developer Nexamp. (MassLive)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS 

Framingham town officials are suing the police union to prevent it from seeking arbitration over discipline of a detective who was placed on leave after the police chief found him to be “untruthful.” The detective, however, says his leave was in retaliation for exposing corruption. (MetroWest Daily News)

Massachusetts communities are looking at ways to block or limit marijuana stores following last week’s vote to legalize it. (Boston Globe)

Newly elected state representative Will Crocker says he will remain to finish out his term on the Barnstable Town Council while serving on Beacon Hill. (Cape Cod Times)

A foundation set up by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh pulled in $420,000 last year, with lots of donations from firms that do business with the city. (Boston Herald)

Falmouth voters approved — by a standing vote — a measure to buy an electronic vote-recording system for Town Meeting and change the charter to allow its use despite qualms from some residents that it would eliminate the tradition and personal experience of head counts. (Cape Cod Times)

Somerset voters at a special Town Meeting approved a measure to change the sewer department to an enterprise fund rather than paid by taxes. (Herald News)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL 

Donald Trump’s selection of Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House is drawing criticism from both sides for what many see as his support for racist views when he ran the alt-right Breitbart website. (New York Times) A Globe editorial says “all fair-minded Americans should be revolted by this appointment.” Trump is also considering Richard Grenell as US ambassador to the United Nations and Ronna Romney McDaniel as head of the National Republican Committee. Grenell is openly gay and McDaniel is the niece of Mitt Romney, who bitterly opposed Trump.

A number of Massachusetts police chiefs say they would refuse orders from Trump for a mass roundup of illegal immigrants. (Boston Herald) Meanwhile, several mayors say they won’t alter their course as a “sanctuary city” for undocumented immigrants, even if Trump follows through with a threat to cut off federal funding to such cities. (Boston Globe)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren argues that Democrats should have gone farther on the Affordable Care Act and the 2009 stimulus package to generate clearer results to point to in last week’s election. (Boston Globe)

Former governor Deval Patrick says he will give Trump a chance, but he worries that the president-elect has unleashed “something dark.” (WBUR)

ELECTIONS 

Stung by criticism from the election, Facebook and Google announced they will not allow fake news sites to advertise on their platforms. (New York Times)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY 

Donald Trump’s far-reaching business holdings have the potential to create a number of conflicts of interest for him in labor, real estate, and marketing deals. (New York Times)

EDUCATION 

Joan Vennochi says it’s time for Gov. Charlie Baker and the “charter school industrial/media complex” to stop lecturing people after the crushing defeat of Question 2. (Boston Globe) Education reform activist Chris Stewart offers a very different take on the ballot question saga.

Nick Wright, a retired physician from Williamstown, is asking the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee to consider replacing football with flag football. “The science is telling us that we may be putting the brains of our sons and grandsons at risk,” he said. (Berkshire Eagle)

TRANSPORTATION

The MBTA, seen as a laggard in executive salaries, is preparing to ramp up compensation at the top levels of the organization. (CommonWealth)

A South Station commuter rail accident occurred on Nov. 4, but went unreported publicly until a meeting of the Fiscal Management and Control Board on Monday. (CommonWealth)

Plans have been finalized for two new garages at Logan Airport that will add 5,000 parking spaces. (Boston Globe)

Salem explores developing a second commuter rail stop/station. (Salem News)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT 

The scientific arm of the United Nations says 2016 is “very likely” to be the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. (U.S. News & World Report)

The Army Corps of Engineers closed the hurricane barriers in New Bedford Harbor for the week because of the “king tides” driven by this week’s supermoon. (Standard-Times)

Firefighters had to use heavy equipment to remove two protesters who locked arms in concrete to block the entrance to TD Bank in Worcester. The protesters oppose the Dakota Access oil pipeline and the bank’s investment in the project. (Telegram & Gazette)

The votes for governor in Vermont as well as several local referenda could spell doom for wind energy projects in the Green Mountain State, at least in the short term. (National Review)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The FBI said attacks and hate crimes against Muslims in the United States increased by 67 percent last year over the previous year, the largest spike since the year following the 9/11 attacks. (New York Times)

Minority teens and youth advocates in Boston recoil at the praise Trump has offered for “stop-and-frisk” policies. (Boston Globe)

Over the objections of the mayor, the Springfield City Council takes an initial step toward resurrecting a citizen police commission to oversee the community’s officers. (Masslive)

Prosecutor says a gun stolen from the Worcester armory was used in a robbery in Boston. (Telegram & Gazette)

State Trooper Dale Jenkins is convicted of negligent operation of a vehicle and assault and battery for his role in a crash in his personal vehicle that nearly killed a passenger. (Eagle-Tribune)

MEDIA

Gwen Ifill, a groundbreaking journalist, PBS anchor, and one-time intern and reporter at the old Boston Herald American, died Monday from complications of uterine cancer. She was 61. (New York Times)

People names Duane “The Rock” Johnson the sexiest man alive. He says he wouldn’t rule out a run for president in 2020. (Vanity Fair)