BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, an anti-Trump Republican who simply gained reelection 4 years in the past, realized his earliest political classes listening to his Democratic mom and Republican father hashing out the problems of the day.
“My mother and father have been married for 60 years earlier than my mother died they usually by no means voted for a similar individual,” Baker, 66, advised The Related Press. “The dinner desk was only a hilarious collection of conversations about every kind of issues.”
These listening abilities — there was a motive he was given two ears and one mouth, his mom would say — proved important as Baker, a part of a convention of socially reasonable, fiscally conservative New England Republicans, took the helm of a liberal-leaning state dominated by Democrats in 2015.
Baker battled blizzards, a teetering public transit system and once-in-a-generation pandemic. He additionally drew the ire of former President Donald Trump by refusing to endorse or vote for the man Republican in 2016 and 2020. Trump, in flip, laced into Baker, calling him a “RINO” or Republican In Title Solely.
“Baker is dangerous on crime, disrespects our police, does nothing for our Veterans,” Trump stated in a 2021 electronic mail.
Baker remains to be reluctant to have interaction Trump instantly, saying the GOP “has to decide going ahead about how they need to deal with that message and I hope they make the suitable one.” By necessity, Baker cast a bipartisan path. He may do little with out Democrats.
“I’ve all the time thought this can be a group sport. I’ve by no means felt prefer it labored if we thought of it purely by way of the lens of win-lose,” stated Baker. “The American public is nowhere as excessive as social media and the events would lead you to consider.”
As he prepares to depart workplace subsequent week, the 6-foot-6-inch (2-meter) former Harvard basketball participant is waiting for his subsequent job main the NCAA. The nation’s largest faculty sports activities governing physique oversees some 500,000 athletes at greater than 1,100 colleges.
Baker steps into the job in March.
“It’s an enormous a part of how quite a lot of younger individuals discover themselves, construct a basis of their worth techniques and their perception in themselves and it’s a means quite a lot of children within the U.S. find yourself going to school,” stated Baker.
Amongst Baker’s followers is his successor, Democratic Legal professional Basic Maura Healey, who final month turned the primary lady and first member of the LGBTQ group elected Massachusetts governor. She takes workplace subsequent week.
Healey has praised Baker, calling him “a valued companion” and “a good friend” who targeted on frequent floor in an period of divisiveness.
“I’m grateful to Governor Baker for his management over the previous eight years. He led with integrity, empathy, a decided work ethic and a willingness to work with everybody.” Healey stated.
Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka stated she was in a position to work with Baker on payments starting from Okay-12 schooling and psychological well being care to the local weather disaster and legal justice.
“Regardless of being of various events, I’m happy with the laws we have been in a position to go and that he signed,” Spilka stated.
The state’s antiquated public transit system bedeviled Baker as governor.
Below Baker billions have been poured into changing tracks, fixing alerts and updating electrical techniques at the same time as officers handled runaway trains, subway vehicles belching smoke and rush hour trains working on weekend schedules.
Earlier this yr a whole department of the subway, the Orange Line, was closed for 30 days to let staff full 5 years price of repairs. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s troubles even drew the eye of the Federal Transit Authority.
One bit of fine information got here this month with the opening of a brand new extension of the Inexperienced Line subway from downtown Boston to close by Medford.
“The factor individuals in elective workplace want to know is that you’re going to get credit score for enlargement as a result of it’s seen. You’ll not get credit score for all of the stuff you do on the core system, which is the rationale why lots of people gained’t do it,” Baker stated.
Sarcastically, certainly one of Baker’s harshest critics is the pinnacle of the Massachusetts Republican Social gathering, a Trump loyalist.
GOP get together chair Jim Lyons has sided with the previous president, who misplaced by double digits in each elections in Massachusetts, in opposition to Baker.
“President Trump was 100% appropriate when he declared earlier this month that ‘RINO’ Gov. Charlie Baker ‘has finished nothing for the Republican Social gathering,’” Lyons stated final yr. “No Republican governor in America has finished much less to advocate for Republican ideas than Gov. Baker.”
By far the largest problem Baker confronted was the coronavirus pandemic.
In the course of the pandemic’s first 100 days or so Baker held day by day, livestreamed information conferences as leaders tried to get their arms across the quickly evolving public well being nightmare.
One of many largest classes from these early months is the necessity for clear and fixed communication in instances of disaster, he stated.
“When individuals are actually anxious about one thing and when there’s a lot data, a few of which is in direct battle with one another flying round, it’s actually necessary for public officers to be out and to be seen regularly,” Baker stated.
Baker has stated he hopes Healey presses for the event of renewable vitality, certainly one of his priorities. Baker had pushed unsuccessfully to place $750 million right into a clear vitality innovation fund.
Though he does not have any fast plans to leap again into politics, Baker would not rule it out.
He stated the largest surprising lesson he is realized as governor was how a lot he and his administration can be embraced by the general public.
“While you spend as a lot time in entrance of the media as we do, individuals deal with you such as you’re their neighbor. You might be the nice or the dangerous neighbor, however they deal with you want a neighbor they usually let you know every kind of fascinating issues,” he stated. “That has been extremely necessary to me.”
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