Charlie Baker became the 72nd governor of the Commonwealth on Thursday. He took the oath of office in the House chamber, and after some congratulatory glad-handing with the assembled officials, Gov. Baker got down to business, laying out a vision for how he plans to govern.
When it came to tone, Charlie Baker’s inaugural address was a bit of a compromise. At times, the new governor seemed to be channeling the “Together We Can” approach of his predecessor, Deval Patrick.
“We must have the courage to set partisanship aside and embrace the best ideas and solutions, no matter which side of the aisle they come from,” he said.
That urge to find common ground was reflected in some of the policy priorities Baker outlined, including fighting the surge in opiate abuse.c
“It is a crisis,” he said. “It’s one that cuts across every community in the Commonwealth.”
But if parts of the speech were bipartisan, others were less so. At one point, Baker suggested that opposing an increase in charter schools would be unethical.
“It’s wrong for any of us to stand on a front porch, or in a city neighborhood sympathizing with a mom or a dad when they tell us their child is not getting the education to succeed in life that they deserve, and then oppose lifting the charter school cap,” he said.
And when he spoke about the massive budget shortfall his administration is inheriting, Baker made his fiscal conservatism clear.
“We can’t blame this deficit on a lack of revenue,” he said. “We have to recognize that this is a spending problem...We will hold the line on taxes. We’re already demanding enough from our hard-working people.”
But Baker was also self-deprecating.
“We said we were chasing 100 percent of the vote,” he said. “Based on the results this morning, we clearly didn’t get it.”
And he made his social liberalism clear.
“We’ve led the way for this nation on issues ranging from health care reform to marriage equality,” he said.
Now it’s Gov. Baker’s turn to try to make history.
