Stealth campaign
Healey not fooling anyone saying state tour was part of her job as AG
Desperate Democrats led by Attorney General Maura Healey are flailing away at a weakened Gov. Charlie Baker in hopes of taking back the Corner Office in 2022 for the first time in eight years. Whether it’s working is questionable.
Healey, flush with campaign cash and popularity within the party, is directing a multipronged, not-sostealth gubernatorial campaign — ripping Baker on everything from coronavirus vaccine delivery to opioids even though the governor is undecided on running for a third term.
Baker is not even a cinch to win his own party’s primary. Conservatives — including the Republican party’s own chairman — have publicly challenged him on moving too far liberal for their liking.
Baker’s popularity has taken a hit, according to the most recent polling, as critics have pounced on the state’s rocky early rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and failing to prioritize some vulnerable populations.
But Democrats take him for granted at their own peril. He’s still more popular than Democratic statewide elected officials and would have the bully pulpit of the governor’s office throughout the 2022 campaign.
If Baker decides not to run for a third term, his lieutenant governor, Karyn Polito, would be the early favorite though she would likely face a stiff challenge from the conservative wing of the party. Former state lawmaker and failed U.S. Senate candidate Geoff Diehl is considering a gubernatorial campaign.
On the Democratic side,
‘After what they did to families here, why would we reward them more state contracts?’ MAURA HEALEY attorney general, questioning the state’s continued use of consultant McKinsey & Co. after it was forced to pay a $573 million settlement for its role in helping market Oxcycontin
Healey is clearly the party’s first choice to eject Republicans from the governor’s office, though other Democrats led by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Harvard professor Danielle Allen and former state Sen. Ben Downing are also plotting campaigns.
The attorney general has been crisscrossing the state — using her publicly funded office by the way — in a campaign-like tour of heavily Democratic areas like Brockton and Worcester.
In the last week she has attacked Baker for giving state contracts to consulting giant McKinsey & Co, just months after the company was forced to pay a $573 million settlement to states for its role in marketing the pain medication Oxycontin.
“After what they did to families here, why would we reward them more state contracts?” Healey asked on Twitter.
The Baker administration just recently handed McKin- sey a $1.6 million study on the “future of work” follow- ing the coronavirus pandemic. Baker officials have also given McKinsey millions more in contracts with the state Department of Health and Human Services related to COVID-19.
Healey also made a slew of appearances in Worcester, to visit striking nurses, and in Brockton to visit local businesses hard hit by COVID-19.
Her trip to Brockton came just a day after a visit there by Baker.
Healey’s Brockton swing included a stop at a food pantry, which by any stretch of the imagination has nothing to do with the attorney general’s office.
Baker for his part has sought to dispel speculation that he’s tiring of the job of governor, telling WBUR radio in a recent interview that “we have a ton of work to do once we get past this pandemic … there’s plenty to do here.”