How do you take down the most popular governor in the United States? That’s the big question facing Massachusetts Democrats heading into the next election cycle, in which they’ll attempt to unseat Charlie Baker.
Over the weekend, they tried to answer it at the state Democratic Party’s convention in Lowell. But their strategy may still need some work.
The first part of the convention, which took place in UMass Lowell’s Tsongas Center, consisted of speeches by various Democratic luminaries. As a group, they were heavy on Donald Trump-bashing and light on negative references to the governor.
Later—after Elizabeth Warren packed a room in the UMass Lowell recreation center for a Power Point presentation on income inequality—Tom McGee, the state senator who also chairs the Massachusetts Democratic Party, helped lead a session titled “Holding Charlie Baker accountable.”
He started with a simple message: don’t be intimidated by Baker’s boffo poll numbers.
“George Bush—George the First—his popularity was over 90 percent after the first Gulf War,” McGee told the crowd, which was packed into a spin-class room and far smaller than the audience drawn by Warren. “And by 1992, we were electing Bill Clinton as president.”
What’s more, McGee noted, Scott Brown was supposed to be unbeatable until he lost to Warren in 2012.
McGee then rattled off a lengthy list of Democratic gripes with Baker—including an alleged dearth of investment in transportation, education, and the environment; an unusual fundraising arrangement with the Republican National Committee; and what McGee called “status-quo” leadership and a general “lack of vision.”
As long as Democrats keep hitting those points, he said—and detailing what they would do differently—they’ll be in good shape come the next election.
“I know people are getting concerned about the governor’s ratings,” McGee said. “We all are. If we continue to highlight those and we continue to work together, I know we’ll have a successful candidate for governor in 2018.”
Of course, that’s assuming that Massachusetts Democrats actually want to get the anti-Baker message out. But even at the state party convention, where partisan passion was running high, there were plenty of Dems who had other ideas.
After Senator Ed Markey gave a fiery speech in which he denounced, Trump, I asked him for his take on the governor. It was pretty positive.
“Getting the money for snow removal, we were successful for partnering on that issue,” Markey told me. “I was able to set up a meeting with Joe Biden in his office with the governor, and that led to the 130 million dollars being released. I’m working with the governor as well on opioid related issues. So where we agree, we should work hard to partner and try to make progress.”
Not the kind of talk that the state Democratic Party is looking for. Of course, Markey spends most of his time in Washington. So I tried State Representative Russell Holmes of Boston, who chairs the Black and Latino Legislative caucus.
“We had the former governor—I was there for four years, and we had only two meetings with the governor, our former governor,” Holmes said of the caucus.
With Baker, he added, “We’ve had six or seven [meetings] already. He’s been very responsive and open. When folks are being listened to, that’s why Charlie has the ratings he has.”
For the record, that former governor was Democrat Deval Patrick.
Holmes did criticize Baker’s recent decision to let State Police detain illegal immigrants at the request of federal authorities. But he was measured—saying that’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Republican governor.
All of which raises an obvious question: do Holmes and his Democratic colleagues even want a Democrat to replace Baker?
“I can say we as Democrats always feel we’d be doing better with a Democrat in the corner office,” Holmes replied. “But at the same time, I think Commonwealth has been served well—unfortunately, I can say this—with the governor.”
Again: not exactly bumper-sticker material.
I did get something a bit sharper from Diane Masters, a Democratic State Committee member who chairs the Somerville Democrats.
“Somerville has a very big issue in the Green Line,” she said, referring to the Green Line Extension, which has been scaled down under Baker’s watch. “The number one thing I judge the governor on is transportation. And he’s certainly failed us on public transportation.”
And yet, Masters said of Baker, “He’s so likable that everybody seems to overlook the policies he puts into place. And that’s a real problem.
“It doesn’t hurt that he’s tall and handsome,” she added. “Unfortunately, he just seems like a nice guy!
If you adjust for emphasis, that’s pretty much the point that Tom McGee is trying to make. But before he tries to get voters to change their minds about Baker, he may need to work on his own party.
