Boardroom backers line up for Baker
Execs’ new money flowing to war chest
Gov. Charlie Baker has been rapidly expanding his base of well-heeled donors, collecting a quarter-million dollars this year from corporate CEOs, out-of-state executives and hundreds of other new donors, none of whom backed him financially during his last gubernatorial run.
Baker, who has yet to formally announce his re-election bid, has staked out an aggressive fundraising campaign that’s pushed his war chest to nearly $6 million through the end of June.
That sum has been fueled by $1.8 million in donations through the first half of 2017, including roughly 900 maximum contributions of $1,000, the most allowed under state law.
New faces are a major part of that, a Herald analysis found. Nearly 1 of every 3 of his max donations, or about 250 in total, came from people who didn’t give to the Swampscott Republican during his 2014 run. In total, they’ve given $256,000, and hail from a hodgepodge of fields, including health care, banking, medical marijuana and horse racing.
“Basically I think he’s doing a good job,” said George Carney, the owner of Raynham Park who last year unsuccessfully sought to land a casino at the Brockton Fairgrounds. Carney gave Baker the maximum $1,000 in mid-June, but declined to get into too much detail.
“He’s trying to keep the state finances under control,” Carney said. “That’s my only statement.”
Jeff Dattilo, a Nashvillebased vascular surgeon, is one of two Tennessee health care professionals to hand Baker a $1,000 check in recent months. But beyond a two-year fellowship at Mass. General Hospital in the early 2000s, his direct connection, including why he donated, to Baker is unclear.
“That’s a great question,” Dattilo told the Herald when reached on his cellphone. But he said he was in the middle of a case and wasn’t available until later. Further attempts to reach him yesterday were not successful.
He’s among dozens of donors with out- of- state zip codes who gave the max to Baker, though they had no readily apparent connection to Massachusetts politics or Baker. They include the president of a Lexington, Ky., harness race track, the head of a New Hampshire trailer company and the CEO of AmSpec, a New Jersey-based petroleum and petrochemical testing company.
Keith Be au lieu, branch manager for AmSpec’s Boston office, said he was invited to a May 22 fundraiser for Baker held by Waltham-based Global Partners, with whom his company does business. He couldn’t attend, so instead, his CEO, Matt Corr, cut a check.
Baker’s campaign did not address questions of whether or how they’re targeting new donors, and instead released a statement from his finance director, David Drummond, who attributed the varied donor base to Baker’s “bipartisan record of accomplishment.”
The big haul adds to Baker’s growing advantage against a field of Democratic hopefuls. The $335,000 he raised last month is more than Setti Warren ($76,925 on hand), Jay Gonzalez ($68,590) and Bob Massie ($26,341) all currently have in their