With Baker’s exit, two-party rule will cease

Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision not to seek a third term creates consequences that go far beyond the race to be his successor.

It fundamentally alters the political balancing act that Republican governors have successfully maintained with the dominant Democratic Party for the last 30 years.

It’s no understatement to say that Baker’s departure from the political scene marks the end of era — a time when Republicans in the corner office wielded a moderating influence over an increasingly liberal Democraticcontrolled Legislature.

That’s the leadership model Baker inherited from his GOP gubernatorial predecessors, starting with Bill Weld in 1991.

Interrupted only by Deval Patrick’s two terms (20072015), Republicans Weld,

Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney forged a collegial, professional relationship with Democratic legislative leaders.

And that system of checks and balances seemed to suit Massachusetts voters, who elected GOP governors while stacking the Legislature with Democrats.

But that dynamic will end once Baker leaves office at the end of 2022.

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, considered to be the heir to that two-party partnership legacy, apparently didn’t have the desire to wage the uphill political battle that recent polling indicated awaited her, and has also decided not to run.

While such a cooperative relationship in this blue state was bound to sunset at some point, the lurch to the right by the state’s Republican Party establishment ensured its post-baker demise.

A recent Umass Amherstwcvb survey showed Baker would probably win a competitive race against Democrat Attorney General Maura Healey, that party’s unannounced but presumptive favorite, and trounce any of the other lesser-known Democrat candidates for governor — Harvard Professor Danielle Allen, former state Sen. Ben Downing, and Sen. Sonia Chang-diaz.

That’s if the governor could win his own party’s primary. He would have faced fierce opposition from the Trump wing — which has split an already splintered party in two.

But in reality, a Baker defeat in the Republican race wouldn’t have been the embarrassment some has suggested.

The GOP is an embarrassment in its own right — with only about 9% of the state’s voters registered party members.

A defeat would have probably boosted Baker’s popularity among Democrats and unenrolled voters if he chose to run as an independent, something he said he’d never do.

So, now the Republican Party’s gubernatorial hopes rest on the shoulders of an avowed Trumper, Geoff Diehl.

Diehl, a former state rep, has already earned the endorsement of the former president – more of a detriment than benefit in this state.

Diehl, who only switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 2009, got caught in a landslide in 2018, when he got steamrolled by Elizabeth Warren in the U.S. Senate race, losing by a 60-36 percentage margin.

And that’s what he can expect again if he faces either Healey — or someone like former Boston Mayor and current Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh — in 2022.

So now the governor and lieutenant governor, as their announcement stated, can concentrate on continuing to expand the state’s economic recovery as Massachusetts contends with an ever-mutating COVID-19 pandemic.

We understand why Baker, who turned 65 last month, felt this was the right time to move on.

Unfortunately, with him goes the reasoned, deliberative leadership that this state will sorely miss.

It’s difficult to believe Massachusetts could swerve any further to the left, but that’s exactly what will occur without a popular centrist politician on Beacon Hill to counter it.