Setti Warren undaunted by Baker’s popularity
Newton Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren appeared yesterday on Boston Herald Radio’s “Rundown” program, where he reacted to news that Gov. Charlie Baker will be running for another term as governor.
Q: Can you give us your reaction to the news this morning of Gov. Charlie Baker launching his reelection campaign effort?
A: I believe that over the next year, we need to have a conversation about the choices in this race. Gov. Baker’s spokesperson cited a press release this morning detailing the work he’s done around opioid addiction and the work that he’s doing around gentrification. I don’t believe that we’ve done enough in either of these areas. I don’t believe that the status quo is good enough. On the opioid crisis we have here in the state of Massachusetts — while I appreciate some of the efforts that have been done by Beacon Hill and the governor — we have over five people a day dying in our state. Since the state of emergency declared by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014, we’ve lost 6,000 people. We have 250,000 people that are living with addiction at a cost, not just at a human cost but at a dollar cost, we’ve got $10 billion annually that the state of Massachusetts is spending around this crisis around criminal justice and health and we need to make sure that we’re investing more in prevention and education and certainly in treatment. On the issue of transportation here in the state I believe we’ve got to do more. Federal data just came out, we have the worst commuter rail system in the country due to mechanical failures with our trains in our system, Gov. Baker’s answer is privatization and no new revenue. I believe that that’s not good enough. We’ve got to make investments so we can improve our public transportation in our state.
Q: What we’ve seen, though, over the last couple of years, is that Gov. Baker’s popularity has risen considerably. How do you combat that?
A: Over the past few months, I’ve been hearing loud and clear from people in the commonwealth that they’re not satisfied with huge health care costs that continue to go up, people making choices between paying for prescription drugs or putting food on the table, people making choices between paying for co-pays or paying for the mortgage; people are not satisfied with that . ... Once we start having this very clear conversation about the choices, my view versus the governor’s record, I believe the people of our state will answer that.