Baker ’absolutely’ staying put
Says he’ll serve full second term, ending prez run rumors
Gov. Charlie Baker, back to work in the Corner Office yesterday with the promise of a second term, vowed to see it through.
Baker told reporters he would “absolutely” serve the entirety of his four years after a Cabinet meeting yesterday, putting an end to rumors that the popular Republican serving in a deep blue state might be a potential presidential candidate in 2020.
“There’s plenty to do,” Baker said of his work in Massachusetts. “From our point of view, today is a work day and our goal and objective going forward is basically going to be to get back to work and chase some of the issues that are currently on our plate as well as developing an agen- da for calendar (year) ’19 and beyond.”
Though political pundits have painted his style as a possible example for other Republicans to emulate, Baker didn’t explicitly show interest in becoming a voice on the national scale, pointing to governors in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maryland who operate with a “similar approach.”
“People want their public officials to spend a little less time yelling at each other and a little more time trying to actually accomplish things,” Baker said. “I am very excited to be able to work with our regional delegation to continue to do stuff on a regional basis that’s important here in New England.”
In his second term, Baker said he plans to focus on the issues he raised during the campaign, including continued work in combating the opioid crisis, climate change, the housing shortage, executing the $8 billion capital plan for the MBTA and a $7.5 billion capital plan for roads and bridges in the state.
“We think we made a ton of progress on stuff we care about,” Baker said. “We get accused sometimes of being the ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ administration but if you add up three yards over time, if you’re relentless about it, you can make a whole lot of progress.”
The governor also called the idea of running for a third term “really premature,” but didn’t rule out the possibility. Baker’s predecessor, Deval Patrick, shot down the notion of a third term before he was even inaugurated for a second one in 2010.
“We’ve been talking mostly about what we want to get done in the second term,” Baker said. “I really like this job, and I really appreciate the voters’ decision to give us a chance to continue to do it. Any decision about something like that would get made way down the road.”