Republican Charlie Baker, a longtime political insider trying to raise his profile and his chances as he runs to unseat Gov. Deval Patrick, said he would back a single casino in Massachusetts but “it doesn’t make sense” to allow more than that.
At a roundtable lunch at Suffolk University, former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger questioned why elected officials pull up a chair at the high-stakes poker table every time there’s a downturn in the economy. “Given your view of what this state needs, do you see it as helpful?” Harshbarger asked.
Baker bared a little of his inner gambler in acknowledging that he’s made trips to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut, trips that he says made him see the light on the benefits of a casino in the Bay State.
“There are a lot of Massachusetts license plates in the parking lots,” Baker told a packed room of Suffolk professors and law students, invited local officials, and a bevy of other political junkies. “But as an economic policy, per se, it doesn’t make sense in going beyond one” casino in Massachusetts.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Baker gave his view on a wide range of topics, from the state’s handling of education to improving the state’s website to telling local officials that, as a former selectman, he feels their pain. Baker’s talk was the first of a series of sessions with gubernatorial candidates sponsored by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service at Suffolk. The audience varied from college freshmen to Social Security-collecting seniors.
Baker, a former secretary of Health and Human Services and Administration and Finance under two former governors, often comes across as the “smartest boy in the class.” But at today’s talk he was more self-effacing, admitting several times he didn’t have the answers or needed to become more informed on certain issues. He hit the right populist notes, such as promising to balance the budget without new taxes or raising fees, that are becoming part and parcel of campaigning in this day and age. He touted his turnaround skills both in state government as former Gov. William Weld’s budget chief and at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which was in receivership when he took over.
“I have 30 years experience of fixing things that are broken,” he said.
In hitting Patrick for what Baker said is the out-migration of talent and people looking for opportunities elsewhere as the reason for his decision to run, Baker said the exodus became clear while he and his wife were watching the sea of Red Sox fans at away games on television. “Virtually all of the fans in the stands used to live here,” Baker said.
Sometimes Baker played a bit loose with the facts. A report by the U.S. Census released in December shows Massachusetts with a 4 percent population gain since 2000 and one of several Northeast states hanging onto its residents after losses in the early part of the decade. By contrast, states that Baker cited as being economic competitors, such as North Carolina and Florida, became stagnant or had more people migrate out than in over the last three years.
Baker also tried to get a dig in at Patrick’s alleged politicization of education. Baker, a former member of the state’s Board of Education, said in the wake of the brouhaha over charter schools and apparent pressure by Patrick and his Secretary of Education Paul Reville to approve a charter in Gloucester, he would support returning to the days of the chair being a volunteer appointee and voted on by the board.
“They served, in theory anyway, at the pleasure of the governor,” Baker said afterward in explaining his statement about how the board used to be made up. “But the chair of the board was a volunteer appointed by the governor and elected by the board.”
Except the chair wasn’t. The chair of the board, established in the education reform law of 1993, has always been appointed by the governor, beginning when Weld first tapped John Silber to the current chairman, IBM executive Maura Banta, who like all her predecessors, is a volunteer.
The audience seemed smitten with Baker, but he did get a few challenges. Baker claimed there were plenty of inefficiencies to cut from the budget before education, public safety, and local aid, noting there are 120 agencies and at least 50 independent authorities that, in some cases, serve redundant purposes. But one member of the audience did not let that go unchallenged, noting Baker as the state’s budget chief under Weld had the power to consolidate back then.
“How come they didn’t get fixed then?” asked Lyle Baker, apparently no relation.
Baker the candidate said they did the best they could with what they had and gave what could be perceived as some cover for Patrick. “State government,” he said, “is kind of like whack-a-mole.”
John Donahue of Milton, a second-year law student at Suffolk, said he came to the lunch “generally supportive” of Baker but wanted to hear more substance to the issues.
“He was really candid,” said the 23-year-old Donahue. “I like what he thought in respect to the future of the Massachusetts economy. A lot of my friends left [because of] a lack of opportunities. Regardless of the election, I’ll probably end up here anyway.”
