Keller @ Large: Gov. Baker is going out on top
BOSTON - He's going out on top.
A new survey from pollster Morning Consult finds Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has the highest approval rating in the country - 74 percent.
Why is this Republican so well-liked in our otherwise very blue state?
"I just got off the phone with Governor Patrick and congratulated him on his victory. He won, fair and square," said Baker on election night 2010 as he conceded defeat. He wasn't into election denialism then, and he still wasn't when he talked COVID response with President Biden last year and Biden told him "you're doing a helluva job."
And that non-partisan attitude is key to understanding Baker's gravity-defying approval ratings.
It's not as if his run has been flawless. The cheers that greeted his efforts to fix the MBTA after it collapsed in the winter of 2015 turned to jeers for the T's chronic safety and performance problems.
Baker fixed the dismal Health Care Connector website, but web access to early vaccination appointments was not so impressive.
And while his pandemic restrictions helped keep Massachusetts safer than most other states, he made plenty of enemies and took the heat for the tragic deaths of veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers Home.
But by shunning partisanship, avoiding personal scandal and draining much of the drama from Beacon Hill during a time of maximum drama in D.C., Baker gave the vast majority of local voters what they wanted - peace, quiet and a measure of competence. "He's created a brand of managing efficiently, not becoming too partisan, distancing himself from Donald Trump, and really gaining the warmth and support of Democrats and independents," says veteran pollster Dave Paleologos of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
What about local Republicans? Many of them seem to have soured on Baker, and that was a factor in his decision not to run again. But Paleoogos points out that the balance has tipped from older, more reflexively partisans to younger voters who prefer to vote the man or woman rather than the party.
So when the party establishment shuns Charlie Baker because he leans too far left, that's a badge of honor for them.