Weekly roundup: Loyalty Trumps
Baker breaks his silence, no Trump
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The sidelines of history can be a lonely place.
The longer Gov. Charlie Baker insisted he cared little about national politics and was solely focused on Massachusetts, the stronger the whispers started to grow. Does the governor not care who the next president of the United of States will be?
Apparently the thought of sitting in his office about a year from now watching Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz take the oath of the office was enough to get Baker off the sidelines. Baker on Friday broke his silence and endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, forced by the growing concern he felt for his party after Cruz and Trump walked out of Iowa on Monday the leaders in the clubhouse.
"I think there's a certain temperament and a certain collaborative nature that's fundamental to somebody's ability to succeed in government and I question whether he has the temperament and the sense of purpose that's associated with delivering on that," Baker said of Trump.
Ditto for Cruz, who he said hasn't "demonstrated an ability to move others and to bring others along with him and to get stuff done either." Nothing, however, on surging Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Baker would not commit to backing the Republican nominee if it's not Christie.
Essentially, Baker is looking for someone in a nominee who can play nice with others, as he has done so far with Democrats on Beacon Hill, and in Christie he feels he's found his man. Of course it couldn't have hurt that Christie pumped more than $11 million into Baker's 2014 race for governor from his perch as chair of the Republican Governors Association.
Also telling, however, was Baker's response to the question of timing in light of his past protestations to getting involved. After Iowa, Baker said he and Polito discussed the risk of appearing to lose focus on the job at-hand or angering factions within the MassGOP, but decided it was worth taking a chance. "I don't ever want to be in a position where people say you didn't have a position on something of significance and importance," he said.
With the quadrennial pilgrimage of politicos to New Hampshire in full swing, back at home House and Senate budget writers kicked off a series of hearings on Baker's $39.6 billion fiscal 2017 budget proposal.
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg tried to challenge Baker's fiscally conservative bonafides by telling lawmakers that his plan to block the deposit of $150 million in capital gains taxes into state reserves would raise "red flags" with the credit rating agencies.
But Standard and Poor's, the same agency that downgraded the state's credit outlook to negative last year over concerns about savings, appeared to give the governor some cover by reporting that Baker's budget indicated "mildly positive credit trends" by using new revenues to pay down the structural deficit and still put some money into reserves.
Supreme Judicial Court Justices Robert Cordy and Francis Spina announced their planned retirements in August. That will give Baker his first chance to put a thumbprint on the high court. At 66 and 69 respectively, Cordy's decision to leave and Spina's mandatory retirement from the bench are only the tip of the iceberg.
Appointed to the SJC by the late Gov. Paul Cellucci, Cordy wouldn't have had to retire until 2019, but justices Margot Botsford and Geraldine Hines will all have to leave before the governor's first term ends as they approach the mandatory retirement age of 70. Spina could only have hung on until November.
While much was made in the retrospective of Deval Patrick's legacy about his shaping of the court with five appointees in his eight years, Baker will get four before he even runs for re-election.
That is, of course, assuming that the legislature doesn't entertain retiring Rep. Ellen Story's proposed constitutional amendment still pending before lawmakers to raise the mandatory retirement age to 76. The Judiciary Committee gave the amendment an ought-not-pass recommendation.
Story's amendment did not come up when Senate President Stanley Rosenberg convened the Constitutional Convention Wednesday with eye toward clearing the deck for an expected vote later this year on an amendment to allow a higher income tax on millionaires.
Lawmakers made it through the first three items on the agenda and voted against proposed amendments to raise the bar of support needed to spend reserves and to use an independent redistricting panel during the next district realignment in 2020.
Legislators did not appear to be in that much of a hurry to get to the tax amendment, recessing the convention after just 90 minutes. They'll be back on April 6, less than a month before nomination signatures are due for legislators and opponents looking to unseat them.
The next day the Senate debated and unanimously passed an update to the decades old public records law aiming to make it cheaper and more predictable for citizens to access government documents.
The Senate bill, in several respects, goes further than the House with tighter timelines for public agencies to respond to requests and stronger enforcement mechanisms. This bill appears headed for another conference committee between the branches, which so far this session have a less-than-stellar track record for achieving timely compromises.
Remember Carlos Henriquez? He's back.
The disgraced former representative who was kicked out of the House by his colleagues after misdemeanor assault and battery convictions on an ex-girlfriend is seriously considering a run for his old 5th Suffolk District seat. The problem for him is that his replacement Rep. Evandro Carvalho is a popular member of the Boston delegation now who has the admiration of House Speaker Robert DeLeo.
Rep. Russell Holmes, a Mattapan Democrat who fought for Henriquez against his expulsion, even admitted that his friend's possible return to politics puts him in an awkward position. While Holmes, the leader of the Black and Latino Caucus, said he would not try to tell Henriquez what to do, he did tell the News Service he would explain the difficult position it would put people in should they have to pick sides between Henriquez and Carvalho.
The House, it seems, is a popular place these days. Henriquez wants to return and few members want to leave for the Senate. Another state representative, this time Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, took a pass on running for an open seat.
Rather than run for Sen. Benjamin Downing's open western Massachusetts seat, the Lenox Democrat said he plans to run for re-election instead.
Yes, some representatives have taken the plunge. But even more would-be-strong contenders from the House have passed on open Senate seats. Maybe Peru Democrat Rep. Paul Mark, who is considering a Senate run from the Berkshires, will break that trend.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Baker turns to fellow Springsteen fan Chris Christie to restore his faith in the Republican brand.
About the Author »
Matt Murphy covers major media, lobbying firms, government agencies, political junkies as well as towns Statewide. He likes to cover politics and campaigns.
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