‘Good news’ hard to find for gov in latest statie flub
It was classic Charlie Baker. Just minutes after the latest state police scandal broke — a larceny charge against the agency’s payroll director — Baker responded with an awkward attempt to downplay the damage.
“This is good news, folks,” Baker told reporters.
Huh?
Baker meant it was “good news” that police internal investigators had caught the alleged embezzlement and referred it to the district attorney’s office. But the phrasing provided an easy target for Democrats desperate to land any blow against the popular Republican governor.
“I’m worried that the governor has lost the necessary perspective to supervise this scandal-plagued agency,” Democratic gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren said.
“Governor Baker is not stepping in the way an effective manager should to get to the bottom of this. It’s time for an independent investigation,” said Bob Massie, another Democratic candidate.
Baker rarely makes gaffes, but in this case he could certainly have come up with a defter response than “good news.”
The next day he attempted to take ownership of the latest scandal but wouldn’t go all the way.
“What I would hope people would do would respect the fact that I can’t possibly know everything about everything, but that once issues are raised we will do whatever we can to fix them and address them,” Baker said on WGBH.
Baker’s attempt to walk the tightrope — expressing appropriate concern without appearing to be alarmist — shows the kind of sticky situation he finds himself in with the series of unfolding police scandals.
The escalating number of problems have come despite Baker’s attempt to wrest control of the situation by installing Col. Kerry Gilpin as head of the state police. As Baker himself said, he fully owns the problems. They are directly under his watch.
That’s why Democrats have been able to pounce. But it’s questionable whether the attacks are having any impact. Warren, Massie, and the other Democrat in the race, Jay Gonzalez, are still largely unknown to most voters and are mired far behind Baker in the polls.
Baker’s approval ratings, meanwhile, continue to stay at stratospheric levels even as the problems in the state police agency have mounted. And Baker continues to raise enormous sums of money, much of it from traditional Democratic donors.
The problem for Baker is that the problems won’t die, and they give Democrats some life — or at least a reason to churn out press releases. Until the scandals stop, Baker will continue to be playing defense at a time in the campaign when he wants to tell the story of his accomplishments.
Baker might be wise to heed the call of his opponents for some kind of independent, external investigation. That way he can say he’s taking definitive action while putting the onus of the problem on someone else.