Charlie Baker’s four campaign launches:
Baker Campaign Launch #1
July 8, 2009: NECN: Charlie Baker announces bid for governor
Baker Campaign Launch #2
July 29, 2009: Boston Globe: Baker launches campaign, criticizes Patrick
July 29, 2009: WBUR: Charlie Baker Promises No New Taxes In Campaign Kickoff
July 28, 2009: NECN: Republican Charlie Baker kicks off gubernatorial campaign
And don’t forget … Tisei Launch:
Nov. 24, 2009: Boston Globe: Baker names Senate’s Tisei as running mate
And yestereday, Baker Campaign Launch #4
Jan. 30, 2010: CharlieBaker2010.com: Baker-Tisei Campaign Kick-off Event
The five questions Baker still has yet to answer are:
1. Now that you announced you are running for Governor, why do you refuse to answer questions about the Big Dig, one of the biggest financial challenges facing the state–and your past role in creating it?
[Boston Globe: “Baker declined several requests to speak about his role in financing the Big Dig.”]
2. When you were in charge of state finances, why did you claim, “I don’t see how anybody could argue that the artery will be pulling money away from non-artery projects”–even as the state had shut down scores of other highway projects due to the cash crunch?
[In February 1998, then-Secretary for Administration & Finance Charles Baker asserted: “I don’t see how anybody could argue that the artery will be pulling money away from non-artery projects.” (*1) At the time, the state highway department had shut down or shelved a reported 200 projects around the state, with officials privately admitting they faced a cash flow crisis in state transportation accounts. ] (*2)
3. Why does your campaign claim you had “a limited role in the financing process” when in fact you literally wrote a key Big Dig financing report?
[In October 1997, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald reported on a newly-released Big Dig “financing report” that called for the “Big Dig to double [the] amount it borrows.” The Globe described the plan as “a new Administration and Finance report” while the Herald spoke of “Baker, who prepared the report.” ] (*3)
4. When you were in charge of state finances, why did you dismiss warnings that Big Dig spending was spiraling out of control–and instead insist you had the “right mechanism” in place to pay for it?
[In 1997, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation issued a study finding the Commonwealth would face a serious Big Dig funding shortfall, even if no additional cost hikes occurred. A & F Secretary Baker brushed off the [accurate] warning, insisting: “We have the right mechanism for dealing with a situation that everyone admits is going to be challenging.” ] (*4)
5. When you were in charge of state finances, why did you remain silent in the face of false claims “no one’s contemplating toll hikes”–or did you really believe this?
[In November 1994, A & F Secretary Baker remained silent as then-Lt. governor Paul Cellucci publicly claimed “no one’s contemplating raising tolls” to finance the Big Dig. (*5) Media reporting of that time describes lawmakers as incredulous at Cellucci’s claim, and sure enough, the Weld Administration later issued a report acknowledging tolls would need to double or triple. ] (*6)
(*1) Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 2/11/98
(*2) Boston Herald, 3/23/98 and Boston Globe, 1/27/98
(*3) Boston Herald, 10/31/97 and Boston Globe, 10/31/97
(*4) Boston Globe, 2/25/97
(*5) Boston Globe, 11/23/94
(*6) Boston Globe, 12/5/96
John Walsh, Chair
Massachusetts Democratic Party
If someone would garner linkts to the stories listed in #5 I would find it helpful. If I get to it, I will do it myself but I have a lot to do today, so if someone else does this, I would be grateful.
The subject of this post should just be ‘failure’
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p>Big Dig Baker and Richard “Second Runner-Up” Tisei held their fourth kickoff and still got terrible press.
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p>The Herald story was more about Baker dodging reporters than his actual kickoff. If you’re trying to be a Scott Brown Republican, why the hell would you dodge the Herald?
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p>Speaking of Brown, it’s funny that Tisei had a line about Brown in his remarks. Must remind Baker that Tisei was his his third choice for LG … after Brown and Cahill weren’t available.
Shame on You David not identifying who this writer is.
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p>Must one be party of the Democratic Party Elite to Post a feature article on BMG….BLUE MASS GROUP appears only to support Democratic Candidates no matter who the candidate is and not held them accountable.
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p>I do not support Chales Baker and certinly know of his record. So do not label me as a backer of him.
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p>All I ask is focus on the issues and hold all candidates acountable…..You and this Blog have a right to promote or have opinions…..At least give persons the right to respond equally….And when the head of the Democratic or Republican Party,m at least identify that person. You did not do this in the posting….Readers had to dig to see who posted.
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p>Baker is welcome to respond to the questions raised in this post anytime he likes.
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p>1. Click on John from Abington either up above or right here. Now read the bio. The writer has identified himself quite clearly, thankyouverymuch.
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p>2. One need not be a party of the Democratic Party elite to post an article, or to get it featured. If nothing else,
Ernie Boch, IIIEB3 is evidence of that. Want to write a diary? Write a diary (strangely misnamed Write a new post in the top left menu box). If it’s good, folks will recommend it (see “recommend” button on the top right of the page). Enough recommendations from the masses, or a promotion from any of the three editors will get it on the front page.3. BMG (the community or the set of owners, mentioned in (2)) most certainly does not support all Democratic candidates. I won’t waste my time with evidence, there’s plenty.
4. With due respect to your choice of words, BMG can’t “hold [politicians] accountable.” Voters can do it, and I suppose the law can in some circumstances. No medium can. Of course you are free to post commentary, facts, opinions, and links expressing ideas, including those which display a politician’s failure.
5. ‘Dig’ is not another word for clicking on a poster’s name. Dig? Enter Big Dig joke here.
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p>They did not have to dig far. John was and has been very open about who he is.
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p>All anyone needed to do was:
a) Read to the bottom of the article and see that John had signed with his full name and tittle.
b) Click on John’s handle and see John’s full name and title.
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p>If David didn’t mention who John from Abington was, I’m sure that it was not because he wanted to hide the fact from anyone, but because it is common knowledge here on BMG who “John from Abington” is. It might have been a courtesy to newer readers, but certainly there is nothing “shameful” in what David did.
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p>”Kate” was kind enough to send me a quick email telling me of an offer from the BMG editors to allow folks to switch their “names” while keeping their account.
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p>So in the name of full disclosure, I will admit that when I first established my BMG account (remarkably – four years ago next week), I was so uninformed, I thought you HAD to have fake name. This whole blogging thing was something my buddy Charles SteelFisher told me was important and I should give it a try.
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p>So reflecting my lack of creativity, “John from Abington” was launched. I’ve always preferred to participate in the discussion fully disclosing my identity. I’ve come to understand why some don’t post in their own name, but I admit I see as more credible the posts of people who disclose their real identity.
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p>Assuming “Kate” is correct, I’ll ask the editors to retire “John from Abington” in favor of “John E Walsh” – my real name.
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p>It feels good to stop living the lie and come clean.
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p>John Walsh, Chair
Massachusetts Democratic Party
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p>PS – Recently, my pal Charles recommended Twitter to me, so I’m “tweeting” these days as @JohnEWalshDem and I’d love to have you follow me. Honestly, I’m in a bit of a contest with @DougRubin and he’s got more followers than me so anything you could do to spread the word would be greatly appreciated.
John,
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p>I’m so glad that you are coming clean.
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p>Here is the thread where name changes are discussed and the question is raised.
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BobBob Neer responds with an offer to make a change on request.<
p>I took it to mean that the offer was open to anyone, not just Pogo.
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p>As far as you questioning my correctness, all I can say is listen to David! đŸ˜‰
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p>Kate
all of his diaries with some variation of
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on the thread starter did you not understand:
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p>I’m really tired of being “polite” and “tolerant” of flagrantly dishonest public discourse (yes, a blog like this is public) like this.
Eight zeros hide anything.
It comes from the media’s habit of using blue to color states won by a Democratic candidate (as opposed to red for GOP). This is a Democratic blog and has never pretended otherwise. Plenty of diarists have had their contributions promoted, even on occasion those that go against the grain here.
Only about 10 years old. Red states and blue states.
In the 1998 gubernatorial, the map was orange and green.
Last summer I visted the Gerald Ford museum in Grand Rapids. One of the exhibits was a map of the 1976 election results with states Ford won colored blue and states Carter won colored red. Since I’ve gotten used to the other way around it took me a minute to readjust my thinking so the map did not seem completely inaccurate.
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p>I also understand that in the UK, red is the color of Labour districts and blue for Tory, in part because of Labour’s socialist heritage and red’s association with that side of the spectrum.
write on BMG before. How can you rant about “respond[ing] equally,” when the GOP chooses not to post on BMG?
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p>And, btw: this is David, Bob and Charley’s blog. They’ve never pretended that they don’t have an editorial viewpoint. If you don’t like that, there’s literally millions of other alternatives for you to check out.
Mr. Gatti is probably one of those people who get upset that the newspaper Opinion Page isn’t objective.
…than Baker could ever hope to be. He passed or implemented Republican (read Romney, that were dead in the water) priorities like insurance deregulation, transportation consolidation and increasing charter schools. He implemented the health care law without bankrupting the state and is getting us through the economic storm with humanity and skill. Could things be better? Yes, but Baker, nor Cahill, have said anything to indicate that they have better ideas. If we do the work, Deval will win.
Baker said, the other day in Springfield (kicking his campaign off), that he’s a “five and five” kind of guy — he wants to cut the income tax to 5% and the sales tax to 5%.
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p>Not one single word about what he would take out of the budget to do that. Nothing.
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p>He is attempting to be elected by sloganeering. Sadly, in this state, it could just work.
Yes we Can!
response. No wonder you lost in 2006.
I voted for Deval in 2006, was a precinct captain, met the man three times, and campaigned vigorously for him in both the primary and the general election. You and I have been here a long time and you should have known that.
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p>That said I did lose, we all lost, because Deval never got beyond vague sounding sloganeering to actually govern. And it goes both ways. Baker has promised to cut spending and taxes while preserving most of the social spending that people like-this is impossible and he has not yet told us which programs he will cut. Similarly Deval said ‘Yes we Can’ change government and the culture on Beacon Hill and did none of those things.
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p>I give the President, whom I also supported and campaigned for, a ton of credit for having the guts on Tue to tell Congress to start shaping up and for admitting to his mistakes, a wonderful change from Dubya IMO. He also had the guts on Thur to talk to his opposition, embrace some of their good ideas, and also ask them to come back to the negotiating table. Deval has done none of these things. Instead of backing progressives over hacks he backed one hack, Wilkerson, over a committed and BMG endorsed progressive Sonia Chang-Diaz. He tried to give Senator Walsh a hack job. He tried to buy off Cahill. He has done the bidding of an indicted Speaker. Nowhere has the sunshine and transparency we were promised has come in.
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p>Lets review Devals promises that he said ‘Yes we Can’ to:
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p>-Cape Wind
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p>He has done nothing
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p>-Lowering Property Taxes
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p>They have gone up
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p>-Restoring Local Aid
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p>He has in fact cut local aid
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p>-No Casinos
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p>he has fought to bring casinos’ to MA against the overwhelming will of the voters and the local towns they are proposed for
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p>-Reform charter school funding to make it equitable with public schools
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p>He has in fact continued to support and even encourage this unnecessary competitive drive where unlicensed charter schools eat up public school funds. I am a supporter of good charter schools AND good public schools but Deval has helped keep bad charter schools open at the expense of good public ones.
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p>-Protect the environment
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p>He has consistently sided with development v the environment. Just take a look at EB3’s expose of his push to bring condos into the Fells State Reservation
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p>-Govern with the grassroots
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p>He has not done so. He is governing behind closed doors with the hacks who run Beacon Hill. His town hall meetings are a joke, his website only recently allowed people to comment, and his plan for many grassroots meetings across the Commonwealth a la Organizing for America on policy rather than political grounds, also failed. No citizen input. no transparency is the new mantra not together we can.
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p>-Defend gay rights
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p>This is about the only good thing Deval has done, and his opponents (sans Cahill) have all pledged to uphold the Constitution instead of supporting a divisive vote so its a wash on this issue.
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p>Now in many ways Deval has been a victim of circumstance. He inherited an economic mess, he inherited a broken Beacon Hill, yet candidate Deval understood this, not as an insurmountable challenge but as an opportunity to advance this state and move it forward. It was a challenge I thought he had the intellect and skill to succeed in facing. he has proven me wrong time and time again. When the going gets tough, he goes on vacation. This is not leadership for tomorrow. This is not change I can believe in. This is not together we can. He responded to all of his campaign promises with the clarion calls of ‘No I won’t’ and ‘its mitt romney’s fault’ and that is not leadership.
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p>I’m not sure what it was you were expecting: perhaps daily rounds of ‘kumbaya’ on the State House Steps? Pretty flowers and everlasting gobstoppers for the children? Perhaps you’re just being led around by your rage, which is looking for a fix… I’m just saying.
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p>From where I sit, Deval Patrick has, in the three years he’s been in office, already spent more time actually governing than Romney, Swift, Celluci and Weld put together.
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p>As a result of this actual governance the center of gravity has swung (back) to the executive, away from the corrupt and corpulent lege.
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p>As a result of this actual governance long delayed reforms have been enacted and are taking shape in practice now.
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p>As a result of this actual governance the Commonwealth is poised to weather the global fiscal storm much better than anyone could have expected to do so when they first saw the storm approach.
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p>As I see it, the choice is between a Peanut-butter and Jelly sandwich and a ham sandwich… And all you can do is wonder why we’re not eating lobsters and caviar. Absent the real and effective governance of Deval Patrick, the choice would be between a shit-sandwich and a shit-sandwich with mustard…
I challenge you to actually name these initiatives and good governance proposals. I can think of one positive thing the Governor did, kill attempts to stop gay-marriage. Other than that he seems pretty powerless next to the lege IMO.
…from all sides” is something, I believe, Patrick said in his first campaign.
John, I’ve got a lot of respect for you…but do you really think your gonna hang the Big Dig around Baker’s neck? Baker is about 10th on the list who to “blame” for the Big Dig and he was no where near the hiding of the soaring costs from bond holders, which Patrick appointee Alosi (sp) was. Just saying.
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p>Do you really think the Big Dig issue will stick with unenrolled general election voters who will decide this thing? These are the same people that voted for Deval and Obama, only to have voted for Scott Brown. I give you the fact that these voters are dumb enough to believe Baker was responsible for the Big Dig problems, IF this was 2006 when a decade of Big Dig scandals finally came–literally–crashing down. But that is all a faint memory –never mind what Baker did or did not do in the ’90s–for the swing voters who are more keyed into the next American Idol election than next November. I think you ned to do a lot better.
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p>(And really, so Baker had a rushed “announcement” last Summer and decided to ask for a Mulligan during a slow time…but your the Ch of the opposing Party…just doing your job, I understand).
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p>As the saying goes: If the shoe fits. Well, I suppose in this case, rope.
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p>When you’re head of Administration and Finance and you preside over something so horrendously abused as the Big Dig, you get held accountable for it.
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p>Brown got about 50,000 more votes than McCain did. Coakley got 800,000 fewer votes than Obama. Certainly, plenty of people went from Obama to Coakley, but that is not at all why Coakley lost the election.
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p>And to say that people who voted for Brown wouldn’t care about something like the Big Dig is absurd. Of course they’d care. Who doesn’t care? While Big Dig may not be as fresh as it was in 2006 (though it’s one cracked wall away from being just as fresh), no one as high as Baker ran in the Weld/Celluci administrations in 2006. Baker actually had an impact on what did (and didn’t) go down — a big one, at that. People care about accountability; if Baker can’t answer these Big Dig questions in a way that satisfies voters, he’s not going very far.
Listen, we are STILL digging out of the mess created by some very poor decisions made back then. Crippling debt burdens and deferred infrastructure maintenance spending just begin to tell the story.
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p>To ask if this is “the best we got” misses the point entirely. It seems to me that these are fair questions to ask and it is not OK to refuse to answer them. Whether it’s the best or not, it is clearly not the only question a candidate for Governor should be willing to answer.
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p>It’s clear that Charlie gets the “campaign-as-dialing-for-dollars” model of politics – and he’s very good at it. But taking the stage to announce his candidacy for the fourth time spouting a call for “accountability” while refusing to answer ANY questions?
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p>Seriously?
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p>Let me ask you – Is that the best CHARLIE’S got, Pogo?
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p>John Walsh, Chair
Massachusetts Democratic Party
Please continue the recent tradition of Democrats across the country of being sadly “out of touch” with the electorate. We greatly appreciate your pointing to such “window dressing” issues like Charlie Baker’s involvement in the Big Dig as the core of the campaign plan for winning Deval’s reelection. Please try to involve some of Martha’s campaign staffers in the Deval’s efforts since I know they are looking for work after their stellar performance against Scott Brown.
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p>Charlie Baker will be marching against Beacon Hill and gathering steam much like Scott did as he speaks to disenchanted MA residents who are tired of balancing the checkbook of a state government which believes the way to fix our state deficit is raise taxes on the hard working residents of MA while we protect unions, bloated state programs, 6 figure hacks who are friends of the governor and promote programs like driver’s licenses and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. We are tired of paying for State Workers pay raises while the people endure almost 10% unemployment.
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p>Who to blame for the Big Dig… there’s a long list of people, many of whom are still in office on Beacon Hill and on Capitol Hill, but good luck trying to blame Charlie Baker for it.
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p>… Charlie Baker was the flagman on duty over at the big dig… waving everybody passed… even the ones honking and shouting and saying stuff like, “That road is crumbling right behind you… turn around, Charlie…! take a look!!” Charlie just kept smiling that bobblehead smile and waving ’em past.
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p>So… did somebody else, other than CB, create the circumstances leading up to the fiasco that was the big dig? For sure… But ample evidence has been presented that Charlie was told, repeatedly, of the problems (that others created) and he either covered for those people or was not competent to address the problems. I’m not sure that you have many other choices in which to describe CBs big dig involvement…
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p>Personally, I want a governor who can handle budgetary responsibilities. If the big dig exposed epic fail on his part, then he ought not to be governor. For sure.
First a zing: Still waiting for those exit polls?
Mr. Walsh has necer hidden his identity, as far as I have seen.
Pogo is one of YOUR guys. You can have him, we Republicans don’t want him. However, since he stupidly bet on Coakley, he is now retired from posting.
…from a political (and frankly substantive aspect) pinning Baker with the Big Dig ain’t going to work, particularly when Deval appointed one of the main culprits of the “Big Dig Culture” as his Sec of Transportation.
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p>Where Baker is weak (so far) is putting meat on his attack/proposals in terms of job creation/lack of specifics in HOW he will cut more than a billion in revenue (by his silly “5 and 5” plan of rolling back income and sales taxes to 5% and maintain essential services and local aid. Most likely he’s full of crap. I went to an event where he talked about the lack of job creation in MA for the last ten years and how he was going to focus on that…in a rabid Republican crowd I prefaced my question to him by pointing out that in that 10 year period, we had Govs Celluci, Swift, Romney and Patrick and what was Gov Baker going to do to create jobs that the other 4 Govs did not do. Of course he flubbed the answer and I suspect he won’t be using that “10 year” line any more.
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p>I do agree that Baker has some explaining to do on the Big Dig and he should do it quickly, because once he does, it’s over. As I said, there are plenty of other culprits–many of them Democrats–that have far more culpability than he.
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Glad to hear you and Deval have changed the tone of politics in MA. Frankly you are digging up stories more than ten years old that have very few legs to them. If this is the kind of muck you will be slinging you are in big trouble.
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p>I am not a Baker supporter. Unlike you I have read his promises to lower taxes and increase spending and find them to be baloney. Unlike you I think we should have a campaign that focuses on the issues, and frankly if you did that you would have a much better time going after Baker. He has very few original ideas, most of them are tired ideas from the Pioneer Institute that either do not have the ability to get realistically implemented in MA or will not do nearly as much as they promise to do. That said, if this is all you got than Deval is in real trouble. When choosing between a guy who has done this poorly as governor and a blank face in an empty suit I think most of the voters will back the blank face.
…things like taking leadership on human rights, working with unions instead of making them political scapegoats, raising revenue when needed, and reforming corporate giveaways.
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p>My point was that it is next to impossible for Baker to complain about what the Governor has done. All Baker can do is make “pie in the sky” comments about tax reductions which the legislature will never pass; nor which does he offer any kind of plan.