NOT SO GOOD TIMES, CHARLIE
Mass. conservatives send message to governor: ‘You’re on your own’
The good news for Gov. Charlie Baker is that conservatives won’t mount an intra-party challenge against him in 2018.
The bad news is that some leading conservatives and supporters of President Trump, like Mary Lou Daxland, simply won’t vote for Baker. The worst news for Baker is that the defections could end up electing a liberal Democrat.
“I just think he has a hard road ahead of him,” said Daxland, president of the Massachusetts Republican Assembly.
Her message for Baker: “You’re on your own.”
That’s a dangerous position for Republicans to be taking, because every Republican who blanks the election ballot next year is giving away a crucial vote. Baker won by only 40,000 votes in 2014. Trump got more than a million votes in Massachusetts last year. Even if a small fraction of Trump voters desert Baker, it could tip the election.
But Daxland, who spoke yesterday on Boston Herald Radio’s “Battenfeld” show, can’t bring herself to even hold her nose and vote for Baker. She was one of those Republican State Committee members ousted by the Baker campaign, which ran a Baker loyalist against her in the 2016 primary.
So to say she’s bitter is an understatement. But she’s hardly alone in her feelings about the governor.
“I’ve had people that come up to me ... they’ll say, ‘I’m never voting for Charlie Baker again,’ ” Daxland said on Herald Radio. “That’s just the pulse I’m getting.”
The big problem for Baker is Trump. The governor has made no secret of his differences with the president and his policies. So where will those Trump voters go in 2018? Will they end up supporting a governor who has openly opposed the president at almost every turn?
“I would have to say the majority I don’t think are going to vote for Baker,” Daxland said.
She may be overstating the amount of bitterness toward Baker, and polls suggest the governor’s approval rate is high, especially among Republicans. One campaign poll done after the 2016 election measured whether voters knew that Baker didn’t vote for Trump. An astounding 70 percent said they did know, yet most of those voters still gave Baker high ratings.
In contrast, Trump’s approval rating in Massachusetts is among the lowest in the nation.
And despite the fissures in the state GOP, there’s no chance Baker will be challenged by a conservative in the primary, according to Daxland. It’s too difficult to take on a powerful, wellfinanced incumbent, and nearly impossible to even get on the ballot because of party rules.
But that shouldn’t be of much consolation to Baker, because the real test will come next November. And right now the Republican governor is flunking with voters like Daxland, who plans to blank the gubernatorial ballot.
“What’s the difference between Baker and the Democrats?” she said. “Not much.”