To the surprise and astonishment of exactly nobody, Charlie Baker is running for Governor in 2014.
Baker, 56, had long been considered a rising star in the Massachusetts political and government world, but his 2010 race to unseat Governor Deval L. Patrick scarred his image as a bipartisan moderate who could appeal to centrist independents and Democrats.
The post-election analysis laid much of the blame for his poor showing on his often strident appeals to the conservative right. One of Baker’s strong points should be the potential support he can get from across party lines and from moderate independents because of progressive positions on social, human services, and environmental issues….
Democratic and Republican analysts said that Baker’s chances of winning will depend on his modulating the hard-edged image he projected in his first run. All indications point to Baker, with some mentoring from his political mentor Weld, is ready to run a far different campaign. For example, he will not sign a no-new-tax pledge as he did in 2010. He will push hard issues important to female voters – a bloc that voted heavily against him.
“It’s going to be a very different Charlie Baker,” said former state Senator Warren Tolman, one time Democratic candidate for governor. “He is a likeable guy. If he shows that, he will be very formidable.”
Well, we’ll see. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of campaign Baker chooses to run. He can hardly run a worse one than he did last time. Look first to see who he hires as his principal campaign advisors. The usual MA GOP suspects? Or someone who isn’t wedded to the notion that the MA GOP should just keep trying harder to sell the same old crap that MA voters keep rejecting?
At this time, I humbly direct the interested reader to my pre-post-mortem of the 2010 election, published in mid-October of that year, when it was reasonably clear how things were going to turn out, and it seemed appropriate to look back on the campaign and explore how it was that the man heralded by some as perhaps the greatest candidate for Governor ever to walk the earth ended up sh!tting the bed.
Baker is a very smart guy who is certainly capable of learning from his mistakes. I predict that the first thing the press will do once he announces is ask him about the ones he made last time around. His responses may tell us a good deal about whether Baker has, in fact, learned anything, or whether we’re about to be treated to a movie that we’ve all seen before.
To questions he refused to answer last time, like just where those 5,000 jobs he wanted to cut from state government could come from, when that was an absolutely gigantic proportion of state government. That was his biggest plank in that whole campaign, one he refused to elaborate on and a big part of the reason of why he never appeared primetime.
If he can’t answer that question now, why should he be viewed any differently? What exactly will he have learned?
While Baker getting in race isn’t exactly a surprise, I’m sure the Grossman folk were holding out hope that Baker would decide to forego another gubernatorial bid.
IMHO, if this race stays as is I think Baker cleans Grossman’s clock. Grossman excites absolutely noone. I’m really hoping someone else gets in this race on the dems side.
Nonetheless, Markey got it done.
It’s funny to say that this is bad news for Steve Grossman. It’s great news! Charlie Baker is a boring insurance executive, and he is best known for his efforts on the big dig. Baker doesn’t have a chance.
It’s sad that the Mass GOP needs to re-run a loser like Big Dig Baker, because they don’t have any compelling candidates.
How much for Baker, Weld, Finneran, Bulger, Burmingham, Travagline, etc.
I know who gets 0% blame, Ronald Reagan, because he vetoed the bill. Unfortunately, his wise executive decision was overridden.
Remember, Baker said that he wasn’t really involved with the Big Dig, but then it turned out that he played a major role.
Big Dig Baker. He projected the costs! And, he hid the truth.
Give me your blame pie percentages.
This just in! Bluewatch is relieved of having to answer DFW’s questions!
Nor get involved in my discussions with other BMG’ers, they don’t need nor should want your help.
Did St. Ronnie slay the Big Dig Dragon before or after he beat Ivan Drago to single handedly win the Cold War in just one punch?
and there is plenty of blame to go around, that’s for sure. One of the tough parts about a project of that size is that it’s big-idea-to-completion lifetime is longer than electoral/appointment terms… so nobody ever really has their arms around the whole thing. Not a whole lot of Robert Moses’s floating around these days, for better and for worse.
P.S. Reagan still gets blame. He may have vetoed a funding bill, but his appointments to DOT still had involvement with the project.
P.P.S. Having only lived through the last five-ish years of the big dig construction, but paying for it through taxes since it was, after all, bonded, I’m not sure if the big dig, in total, was wise or unwise. It was expensive, but the end result is valuable. I have no idea how to balance up the two things in my mind — very big numbers on both sides of the balance sheet. I suppose I’d clearly be in favor if there was a North-South rail link, and perhaps I should argue it was a bad project because it has now, essentially, precluded a N-S rail link from getting built anytime before 2040 or so, but nevertheless, it isn’t obvious to me. I probably drive “big dig roads” about once a month or less, so it’s not like I get a whole lot of direct, personal benefits from the project either.
It would have been worth it if it cost twice as much as it did. Boston is nice, clean and good looking city again. That is priceless.
Not that we ever do that.
Big Dig oversight rested with the Governor’s office, not the lege — and Massachusetts had Republican governors during almost all of the project.
An enormous share of the blame pie goes to Governor William Weld, who was seeking higher office and viewed Big Dig contractors Bechtel and Parsons Brinckerhoff as prospective allies and king-makers. Mr. Weld created the clear appearance of not seeing enormous cost overruns in exchange for assistance in his political career from those receiving the benefits of those cost overruns.
The fact remains that, as expensive as it was, the Big Dig was far and away the most affordable option on the table. The Central Artery that it replaced was literally falling down, and was handling twice its rated capacity. Rebuilding the Central Artery would have cost more and delivered less. Not doing anything would have strangled the city.
The only thing we could have and should have done differently is that we could have and should have used the opportunity to build the North-South rail connection while fulfilling our promises to expand the subway and commuter rail. Efforts to derail those projects (pun intended) were led by the same succession of Republican governors that were so careful to not see the obvious Big Dig corruption.
Since Charlie Baker is running for Governor, and I would like to see him lose, I’m eager to discuss the GOP role in Big Dig overruns (and failures) as much as you like.
To try put 100% on Weld and Cellucci is disingenuous. Are you saying the Democrats didn’t sign off on any of the financing plans?
You know as well as I do that I didn’t say “100%”.
You asked for the blame pie, and you got it.
“The second part of Baker’s borrowing plan was more complex and, at the time, more innovative. It called for selling up to $1.5 billion in Grant Anticipation Notes, known as GANs, which allowed the government to borrow money and pay back the principal using future federal highway grants to the state.”
“Although the sale of GANs is common today, they had been used only occasionally at the time, and never on the scale that Baker proposed”
Exit Question. Has Deval ever signed off or issued a GAN during his tenure? I don’t want anyone here twisting like a pretzel, defending Deval’s use, but not Charlie’s idea, which was embraced by the Democrats.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/13/bakers_role_in_big_dig_financing_process_was_anything_but_small/?page=3
Tom Baker has nothing to do with this. Jelly-Baby?
The obvious right answer was to raise taxes, raise tolls, or both. The shell-game of GANs have been a disaster.
Whether or not Deval Patrick has embraced them is irrelevant — if he did, he was wrong. The Democrats who supported them were wrong.
Charlie Baker’s initiative created a fiscal cancer that is still eating away the underbelly of this state. Please — let’s keep talking about it. The more voters know about it, the more they will be appalled.
Democrats who voted and passed more GAN’s, get a 5 minute timeout, but Baker must be stopped at all costs, for the exact same reason.
Now I get it!!!!
Which part of “The Democrats who supported them were wrong” is difficult for you to understand?
No timeouts. Wrong. As in I-will-vote-against-them-given-an-opportunity.
I agree Baker’s got a “loser” stigma, but that won’t mean much if he’s running against Grossman (an abject failure in his 1st run for Governor) or Coakley.
In fact, a Baker vs. Coakley final would pit the two candidates who arguably ran the two worst campaigns in modern MA history against each other. Both managed to lose what looked like automatic wins.
My guess is Baker’s counting on the Dems giving him a soft matchup like that. I’m hoping we find a hard charger who makes Baker look every bit as dull and out of touch as he is.
Back in 2010 he declared he wasn’t smart enough to have an opinion–is that still the case?
Not even facebook can perform facial recognition of Charlie Baker. Grossman and Markey effectively shared time with the general public in our Marlborough Labor Day Parade yesterday. Grossman’s supporters were many in wearing Grossman shirts and marching with him yesterday, but Aleppo Shriners, the brotherhood, closed and owned the parade. As usual, the parade featured zero labor unions. I did not take any pictures of the huge turnout of Aleppo Shriners. I was too overwhelmed by them. Even their clowns scare me. When a shriner drove one of their mini-firetrucks, I could imagine it rolling over me like a mammoth tank.
Scott P. Brown’s million of Massachusetts voters do not carry over into Charlie Baked’s column. Markey, by marching in Marlborough, shows that he realizes that repeatedly appearing in MSNBC (i.e., TRMS) does not lock up a million Massachusetts votes for himself. I believe in Grossman’s vision of leaving no neighbor, family, community nor region in our Commonwealth behind, but I am more in awe of the Aleppo Shriners than Grossman Country.
A tad worse than a health insurance company, no?
In 2010, Deval got 49% of the total vote. I’m sure there is a possible straw man to run as a third party candidate, to dilute Baker’s voice.
Don’t forget, Deval had that water pipe break in Waltham, that helped his image, and by using the Romney surplus left to him, to cover the budget shortfalls, MA had a lower unemployment than the rest of the nation.
I don’t any possible way this guy wins. If anything, we learned this guy is fake and people see thought that fairly easily.
This from a great article by the very good journalist Phil Primack in Boston Magazine:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/07/the-blame-game1/
Charlie Baker was the most powerful person in those administrations outside of Weld and Cellucci themselves. He had a hand in a *lot* of what went on, most certainly the Big Dig, and was considered a ‘wunderkid’ then when it came to finances. He should be held accountable for fracking up those financial issues now that we have the hindsight.
No revisionist history. Anyone who suggests Charlie Baker was some kind of victim of what went on is either lying or dumb. He deserves an enormous amount of the blame for whatever blame there is to go around.
but if they are ignorant, they owe it to themselves to learn about his role in those administrations. There were some successes and he deserves credit there, but far more failures and he should be held accountable. Really, there’s nothing that he’s ever done that screams he’s ready to be the executive officer of our state. Not his role on any number of the boards he’s been on statewide or locally, not the bailed-out Harvard Pilgrim and certainly not what he did working for Weld or Cellucci.
Reality Based Logic at work. Deval proposes using a funding mechanism called Grant Anticipation Notes for his transportation projects, that’s good. Charlie Baker proposed the same method for Big Dig, that’s bad.
“Duh, that sounds logical”
“Joyce said he has concerns over “extraordinary provisions” contained in the governor’s bond bill that would enable the administration to commit the state to payments stretching out to 2053 and a funding mechanism known as grant anticipation notes.”
Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_23895384/senator-transit-bonding-will-be-left-up-administration#ixzz2dyhqxAmk
Had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with cost overruns.
1. Of course Baker was intimately involved in the Big Dig financing. No dancing around that one.
2. Yes, the Patrick administration used similar financing mechanisms.
3. Why does the Herald keep saying we need someone with private sector experience and then point to Charlie Baker? He has public sector and non profit sector experience- not private. Steve Grossman and Dan Wolf are successful private businessmen.
4. Cost overruns and problems with big dig had NOTHING to do with the unions. In fact, most people who worked on the project pointed out the engineering issues at the time, and nothing was done about it.
Kitty, just one more. Did the Dems at the State House support these “similar” funding mechanisms? Did they give these GAN’s their blessings too?
Here’s what matters about Baker and the Big Dig:
– Costs exploded during his watch and he failed to tackle the incompetence and corruption (namely in the form of Jim Kerasiotes) that caused. And keeping those costs in line was part of Baker’s job.
– The Big Dig debt he saddled on the back of the MBTA has created all kinds of problems for that agency and the state is still trying to fill the $1 billion annual transportation hole Baker’s financing plan dug for us (and DeLeo/Murray deserve a ton of blame for not filling it).
– He actually didn’t figure out how to get big portions of the project (public transit) done.
– His “innovative plan” to lump the expense of the project on future generations rather than pay for it up front will tack another $6 billion onto the $16 billion price tag. It was an innovative way to shirk responsibility in the past and stick it to us in the present. It’s pig ugly and his fingerprints are all over it. GAN or no GAN, it was a shoddy financing scheme designed to cover up colossal mismanagement.
“the cost escalation included inflation, the failure to assess unknown subsurface conditions, environmental and mitigation costs, and expanded scope. Mitigation alone required 1,500 unanticipated, separate agreements.”
The only way to stop the price escalation was to do what Chris Christie did in NJ with his tunnel project, and that was to kill it, which Christe did. It is intellectually dishonest to blame Baker for cost overruns or blame his funding mechanism, a method Deval and Democrats seem to enjoy.
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask/issues/39/39s_big_dig.html
The Big Dig financing plan and process was a fiasco, and Charlie created the funding plan. I see where you pick and choose projects with similar funding methods as your weak (very weak) response. But you once again completely miss the point.
Baker talks about fiscal responsibility and living within your means. His record shows that he abused the funding methods to unheard of levels at the time to fund the project. The amounts of the GANs at that time were astronomical and not done anywhere else. Why? because it was a flusterf**k plan. He hid 100s of millions in obligations that we paid over decades because potilically they wanted to cut taxes and continue to spend. Let me know, how that is living within your means. But the scope at which Baker did it is what is so astounding.
You should be pissed off at him for what he did, but alas he alas an “R” next to his name so it’s all Deval Patrick’s fault. BTW, you know what Patrick did, only got us out of Baker’s obligations and with a great credit rating under his administration got a lower financing rate saving millions. But let’s not talk about that, it’s Patrick’s fault.
The Big Dig financing plan and process was a fiasco, and Charlie created the funding plan. I see where you pick and choose projects with similar funding methods as your weak (very weak) response. But you once again completely miss the point.
Baker talks about fiscal responsibility and living within your means. His record shows that he abused the funding methods to unheard of levels at the time to fund the project. The amounts of the GANs at that time were astronomical and not done anywhere else. Why? because it was a flusterf**k plan. He hid 100s of millions in obligations that we paid over decades because politically they wanted to cut taxes and continue to spend. Let me know, how that is living within your means. But the scope at which Baker did it is what is so astounding.
You should be pissed off at him for what he did, but alas he alas an “R” next to his name so it’s all Deval Patrick’s fault. BTW, you know what Patrick did, only got us out of Baker’s obligations and with a great credit rating under his administration got a lower financing rate saving millions. But let’s not talk about that, it’s Patrick’s fault.
Deval did what 49 other governors took advantage of, that is refinance debt by taking advantage of lower interest rates. My Hero!
Johnk ignores the fact the controlling party, the Democrats, with veto power in both chambers, supported Baker’s financing plan.
Johnk, what taxes did you want to raise back in the 90’s? You know we had a crash in 99′ and recession in early 2001? Like a parrot, “raise taxes, raise taxes”. How about this novel idea, cut the budget?
I believed since 87′ that Ronald Reagan was correct, calling the Big Dig a bill so filled with holes, you could drive a truck through it. Reagan, like with most things, was right again, he nailed what the Big Dig ended up becoming. That’s why I have a picture of Dutch Reagan in my living room, the one where he is wearing the cowboy hat. Sort of like how folks use to have JFK & RFK in the old days.
But in Johnk’s world, Democrats can do no wrong, and if they do, it’s less wrong than Republicans, or as Kitty said, Dems didn’t know what they were voting on when it comes to GAN’s (very plausible).
You are all over the place, Reagan something, people voted for this or that, sorry blame shifting is not your answer.
Your argument that the Chief Architect of the Big Dig who said it did the job and would do it all over again, has no responsibility whatsoever because it’s the democrat’s fault. I’m not voting for the entire chamber in the 80’s for Governor, Charlie Baker is running, and whether you like it or not, it was HIS plan.
You confuse raising taxes with leaving within your means. there seems to be some mental block. I didn’t say raise taxes, talked about Baker talking about fiscal responsibility. You have to agree that it a joke. He created one of the worst financing plans in history. Sorry but it true, no matter what Reagan said or whatever other deflecting nonsense you’re spewing, that’s what he is. You can’t deflect yourself out of that no matter how long your stomp your feet or hold your breath. (which is what your response reads like).
Those rail against Baker for using or developing Grant Anticipation Notes to fund the Big Pig, yet silence when Deval does the exact same thing. Have you no shame people?
Live within your means we would have stopped the project in 1994. That what you wanted?
Pointing out the greatness of Reagan is simply sharing facts with the BMG community, which I suspect, did not know Reagan vetoed the Big Dig bill.
Your comparison is like saying that a person is hypocritical when complaining about someone saying they are fiscally responsible and live within their means when they make 50k a year took out a 2 million mortgage because the person complaining makes 50k and took out a 100,000 mortgage themselves. Your argument doesn’t make sense.
Charlie Baker is the architect of one of the biggest clusterf**ks in financial history. Now he’s going to run on fiscal responsibility? Come on, you are better than this.
What was the alternative plans, Johnk. Raise taxes? If so, on what? Cut spending? I agree, the Greenbush Line was a waste of $519 Million, no? Eliminat the PLA requirement? You’ve got nothing but whining and moaning.
At least Tom says what Deval did with GAN’s is bad, no Kool-Aid for Tom.
who say, ” The federal budget is like every American family sitting at their kitchen table working out their family budget. Liars, every stinking R only out to bleed the 99% dry and serve it to the 1% on a silver platter.
the Big Dig financial plan was created by Charlie Baker.
You are a funny guy Dan.
Everyone here (except me) supported Deval’s transportation proposal to spend $19 billion on public rail. Guess what funding mechanism Deval proposed and everyone here pushed for its passage? Grant Anticipation Notes! How much was Baker’s Big Dig GAN, $1.5 billion? Looks like you had your 20-1 ratio reversed.
“Joyce said he has concerns over “extraordinary provisions” contained in the governor’s bond bill that would enable the administration to commit the state to payments stretching out to 2053 and a funding mechanism known as grant anticipation notes.”
Why doesn’t someone who works up on Beacon Hill set the record straight. How much of that $19 billion in Deval’s transportation proposal was the funding mechanism Grant Anticipation Notes? How much has Deval and fellow Democrats financed since 2007 using Government Anticipation Notes? Then compare it to what Baker’s $1.5 billion.
Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_23895384/senator-transit-bonding-will-be-left-up-administration#ixzz2e63GiJxC
that’s what I’m reading, but if it’s all you got then …..
In fiscal year 2009, the Commonwealth launched a new capital investment program known as the “Accelerated Bridge Program” (the Bridge Program). The Bridge Program is a $2.984 billion, eight-year program to rehabilitate and repair bridges in the Commonwealth that are structurally-deficient or that would otherwise become structurally-deficient within the next few years. The Bridge Program will be financed with a combination of two sources: (1) special obligation gas tax bonds of the Commonwealth, and (2) federal grant anticipation notes.
The following table shows the current estimate of annual Bridge Program spending between fiscal years 2010 and 2015 to be funded with a combination of gas tax bonds and federal grant anticipation notes.
Table 5
Accelerated Bridge Program Spending Schedule
Fiscal Years 2010-2015
($000s)
Fiscal Year Gas Tax Bond Bridges Spending Federal GANs Bridges Spending Projected Accelerated Bridge Program Spending
2010 0 0 0
2011 0 18,406 18,406
2012 0 114,166 114,166
2013 0 277,760 277,760
2014 0 295,322 295,322
2015 0 212,567 212,567
Totals 0 918,221 918,221
This conversation and blaming Deval Patrick is a loser for Charlie Baker, if he has any chance in this election this is the stuff he will need to steer clear from. So you will understand how I really like to keep this going.
Ok Dan. I’m familiar with the page you did the cut/paste and the plan. The first column is the GAN’s. Did you know Charlie’s plan sucks 550 million from us every year (it’s actually 680 million now), he’s the gift from hell that keeps on giving. Take a look at our crumbling infrastructure that was neglected because of the transportation money sucked out. Now that we need to fix those neglected Romney/Swift/Cellucci/Weld bridges. Take a good look at those numbers Dannyboy, that 680 million would come in handy huh? The money that Charlie Baker with his fiasco took from us. Mr. fiscal responsibility himself, and it Deval Patrick’s fault.
I enjoy this Dan. Don’t forget, Ronald Regean, why? I don’t know, but you sure like to say his name a lot.
Johnk- what other solutions would you have proposed, killing the project, cutting local aid, or better yet, look to people like me to pay more in taxes? Make a decision johnk.
Oh, you need $500 million a year? Tax Harvard’s endowment fund at 2.5% after the first billion, you and Deval would have $800 million each year.
rated a +. Keep it coming.
We were running on a surplus. WTF, maybe pay it with money we had? No? Fiscally responsible?
… tanks.
Frankly, they probably didn’t understand the plan, but I think by authorizing the spending they were inherently supporting the funding mechanism. I believe they would have also have had to be used by Treasury, which was always controlled by Democrats, with the exception of the Malone years.
C’mon now, these are Massachusetts Democrats we are talking about.
Thanks again!
I just don’t see what room a moderate Republican has to work with. The Republican brand has become dominated by some fairly radical planks, such as:
* Cut taxes on the wealthy, purportedly to “help” the economy.
* Cut welfare from the poor because they’re freeloaders.
* Cut regulation on businesses to “unleash their potential”.
* Cut government spending. Reduce the size of government.
Then we have the social issues:
* Gays are bad.
* White men are the most endangered minority out there.
* Close the borders – no immigration, throw out the illegals.
* Abortion and birth control are bad and should be illegal. Jail women if necessary. Don’t let women even debate this issue.
* Guns for everyone!
* Drugs = go to prison!
The Republican party is now truly the party of the Angry White Man.
There are a few areas where I can agree with some Republicans:
* Good Government – reforming bureaucracy to make government operate more smoothly. However, Republicans aren’t content to compromise on this area anymore, they jump right into “privitize everything, shut down the public schools, outlaw the unions, and cut everyone’s pension”.
* Civil liberties. Republicans have never really been known for such liberties when they stray from the White Male area of concern, but I think there is room for some Republicans to agree that stuff like NSA snooping is a bad thing. Unfortunately there are too many Republicans who have no problem with this kind of thing in general, as long as it isn’t being used on White Males. Spying on the New Black Panthers or Occupy New York? Bonzai!
* Responsible taxation. Yes, there are times when Democrats can overreach on taxes, and it’s good to have a balancing opinion. But Republicans are again unwilling to compromise – tax increases are never permissible, ever, ever, ever, as long as there is one case of someone lazy being on the dole or a government worker who gets into work 5 minutes late.
Those beliefs are so closely held by so many Republicans today that I can’t see how a guy like Charlie Baker can stake out ground that isn’t wingnutty without losing the excitement of 95% of his party.
President Bill Clinton 1993-2000
President Barack Obama 2009-2017
… Charlie Baker is the one Republican in recent memory who didn’t immediately go all ‘My opponent is a (choose one) scary/lazy/illegitimate, (choose one) black/cherokee, (choose one) marxist/fascist/labor/community organizer man/woman who wants to give undeserving minorities all the hard earned money of real (ahem, white) Americans.
But this is a credit to Charlie Baker the man and a detriment to a party that continues to employ Eric Fernstrom: in a straight up election on the issues, Republicans almost always lose.
They’ve been out of power for so long they relish the Cohnah Office at any cost, even the cost of supporting a socially liberal candidate. Baker’s biggest mistake was making the Anderson’s and Howell’s of the world and calling for rolling back the income tax and sales tax rates. I’d agree with the current Governor on revenue and hope our next nominee follows the same course.
Grossman v Baker would be a very boring election though. It would behoove Grossman to tack left rather than to the middle.
Yes, I’ll give Baker credit for not being a sleazebag campaigner. His politics are what concern me the most, though. He’s thought of as some kind of moderate Republican, but where is the ground he is standing on?
He is calling for the repeal of the MA computer sales tax. This tax sounds like it was ill-conceived and is out of line with the rest of the country. It wasn’t pitched to the public. From everything I’ve heard, it is a bad idea. I think he has a single coming out of the gate on this issue – though I tend to agree with Governor Patrick that the hole that repealing this tax needs to be filled somehow.