Baker bails on convention
The highest ranking members of the state’s Republican party will not attend this year’s nominating convention despite having been invited.
“Conventions – generally speaking – are about candidates, and I think both the Lt. Governor and I felt that since we’re not running the most important thing for the delegates to do is to hear from those who are,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday.
Set for May 21 in the MassMutual Center in Springfield, the convention is where the party will decide which candidates to endorse for statewide office ahead of the September primary and the November general election.
Since Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito announced in December they will not be running for a third term that most certainly won’t be them.
“You know, I’ve spoken at the last three but I was a candidate at the last three and I think the best thing for everybody, no matter whose convention it is, is what you really need to hear from other people are actually trying to get elected,” Baker said.
At this point the two leading GOP candidates are former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and Wrentham business executive Chris Doughty.
Both have similar platforms and both say they are supporters of former President Donald Trump, though only Diehl has received the former executive’s direct endorsement.
Diehl says that his background in government gives him the edge over Doughty.
“Due to his lack of any public sector experience, Chris Doughty has no meaningful opinion on many of the issues that are important to voters in the race for governor this year. His answers to policy questions are as bare and spotty as my front lawn,” he told the Herald in early April.
Doughty, on the other hand, has said that his experience as an executive and with large budgets is why he should be the party’s pick for the governorship, “Chris will win over voters on the economic issues. Unlike (Attorney General Maura Healey), he’s going to work on making Massachusetts affordable. For example, when drivers were hurting Chris supported a gas tax holiday. Healey did not. The last open seat governor’s race we determined on economic issues, especially the gas tax,” his campaign said through a spokesperson.
Former state Rep. James Lyons, the state GOP chairman, said that he won’t say why Baker isn’t going to the convention or seeking reelection, but that either of the two leading candidates will represent the party well.
“I don’t have a preference – I need to unite Republicans behind the message of preserving freedom. I’m looking forward to seeing the eventual candidate’s plan for that,” Lyons said.
Asked if the party was harmed by affiliation with Trump, who was impeached twice in a single term, lost both chambers of Congress and failed to win a single county in the Bay State, Lyons said the state party remains in line with the president.
“I think President Trump’s message of America first is absolutely consistent with our message of preserving freedom.
I think what we’re seeing is the message of the radical left is absolutely unacceptable to Americans all across America and in Massachusetts,” he said.