Lucas: Like Tom Brady, no thanks for Charlie Baker in Massachusetts

Gov. Charlie Baker is leaving a lot the identical manner Tom Brady did.

With nobody saying goodbye. With no thunderous applause ringing in his ears. With not a lot as a thanks. A lot for gratitude.

New England Patriots Tremendous Bowl hero Brady acquired no heat applause from the Patriots when he left the group in 2020 after spending twenty years successful for the group.

Republican Gov. Baker is leaving the identical manner. Baker, after eight years as governor, won’t even attend the Republican Celebration conference in Might.

Brady, upon leaving the New England Patriots, a minimum of went on for extra glory with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Baker’s glory days could also be over.

There will probably be no Baker conference farewell speech, no summing up of his accomplishments, no views of the long run and no endorsement of a possible GOP successor. The occasion will occasion with out him.

That is the occasion that gave Baker its endorsement for governor thrice.

Baker misplaced his first run for governor in 2010 to Democrat Deval Patrick, however received the subsequent two elections.

However the 2022 Republican Celebration isn’t your conventional reasonable/liberal Republican Celebration of the previous, which Baker epitomized. That Baker-led occasion is useless after it grew to become indistinguishable from the Democrats, and Baker was labeled a RINO — a Republican In Title Solely.

It didn’t assist that Baker was a staunch critic of fellow Republican and former President Donald Trump.

So, Donald Trump Republicans, led by former state Rep. Jim Lyons, the occasion chairman, wrestled management of the occasion away from Baker.

The consequence was that you simply had a Republican governor unable to manage the occasion he was presupposed to be main.

Nonetheless, Baker was practical sufficient to know that to get issues accomplished as governor he needed to work with a closely Democrat-controlled Legislature. This meant governing as a Democrat.

That made for some awkward Republican politics. Whereas Baker is common with Democrats, Independents and liberal Republicans, he misplaced out with Trump supporters who now management the occasion.

Lyons mentioned that regardless of Baker, he believed that Trump’s America first message was per the message of the Massachusetts Republican Celebration.

Had Baker determined to run for a 3rd time period, he confronted the potential for shedding the conference to Geoff Diehl, the conservative former state consultant who ran unsuccessfully in opposition to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.

Diehl, who challenged Baker even earlier than Baker selected to not run, is supported by Lyons, who will management the conference, and nearly all of conservative conference delegates. Diehl has additionally been endorsed by Trump.

The opposite Republican working for governor is businessman Chris Doughty.

Including a conservative taste to the conference is the selection of Thomas Homan, the outspoken former appearing director of ICE, as a featured speaker.

Homan has been strongly vital of Biden’s open-borders coverage.

Baker, in asserting his absence, mentioned it was necessary that delegates hear from candidates who’re working, and never from those that are usually not.

He’s mistaken. If something, it’s extra necessary for delegates, in addition to the general public, to listen to from a governor who’s lastly free to talk his thoughts with out worrying about looking for delegate votes.

Eight years in the past, outgoing two-term liberal Democrat Gov. Patrick, who was not looking for a 3rd time period, wowed the delegates on the state Democrat Celebration conference together with his farewell speech.

In a rousing speech, Patrick had the delegates in a frenzy when he attacked Republican conservatives and “the exhausting proper.”

These are the identical conservatives that took the Massachusetts Republican Celebration away from Baker. They are going to be on the Republican Celebration conference.

However Baker received’t. Possibly he ought to ship Patrick in his place.