July 23, 2010

Let the 100-day countdown begin!

Before I get too into reflecting on the campaign, I want to share with you our latest video of life on the campaign trail with me this week. Check it out here.

I left my job at Harvard Pilgrim and jumped into the Governor’s race about a year ago.  Yes – time does fly.  Back then, I had no team, no campaign money, no office space, and basically no one knew who I was.  But I knew Massachusetts was heading in the wrong direction, and I wanted to do something to turn it around.  I’ve learned a heck of a lot along the way, but I wanted to share with you five important things that are high on my mind:

1)     This is a great state – filled with great people – and you all deserve better than you’re getting from Beacon Hill.  When someone talks to me about cashing out their 401K to pay their mortgage, or putting their own money into their company because they can’t get a loan, or purposefully reforming their public schools because the kids in their community didn’t do well on MCAS, I walk away amazed by the imagination, guts and creativity that’s all around us.  Despite it all, the people of Massachusetts are living within their means and making things work – for themselves, their families, their organizations and their communities.  State government needs to play by the same rules everyone else is playing by, and stop living beyond its means.

2)     This race is about what I call the pocketbook issues – jobs, spending and taxes.  These were the issues most on my mind when I entered the race.  Under Governor Patrick and Treasurer Cahill, the state’s once robust finances have crumbled, and the state now faces a $2.5+ billion structural deficit next year – despite 8 tax increases and billions of one-time federal stimulus and rainy day fund money.  Our competitive position as a state – never great to begin with – has gotten worse over the past few years, and over 300,000 people are out of work.

I have the plans and the desire to dig into these issues and turn this state around.  Governor Patrick and Treasurer Cahill cannot get it done.  They both made the mess we have to fight our way out of, and oppose virtually all of the reforms I’ve proposed.  That might be because they’ve been busy seeking and securing union endorsements that cripple their ability to reform much of anything.

3)     Too many people in and around Beacon Hill can’t think past the status quo.  I talk to folks who work up there about reform, and they simply shake their heads and say it can’t / won’t happen.  They are good people, but they are deeply mistaken.  They’ve been lulled to sleep by the increasingly low expectations of the Patrick Administration.  When the Governor says, “These are serious issues,” or “there are no quick fixes,” that’s code for “it’s too hard to fix it.”  I disagree.  There are huge opportunities for reform in a crisis, and right now, Massachusetts is missing out on all of them.

4)     Governor Patrick’s recent decision to walk away from 17 years of hard won progress on K-12 education is an outrage.  I know this item doesn’t meet the “lessons learned over the past 12 months” test, but it still deserves mention.  On so many issues, the Governor’s approach to Massachusetts is small-minded, but none speaks as loudly as this one.  Instead of focusing on fixing all the stuff in state government that’s broken, he wants to change the one thing that works.  We lead the nation in student achievement, and many businesses are here because of the quality of our schools and our workforce.  Throwing our state in with some to-be-developed federal program for education reform is simply bad policy – for students and for Massachusetts.  I will do everything in my power to reverse this decision if I win in November.

5)     I know I can do this job.  More importantly, I WANT to do this job.  I’ve seen this movie before.  State government is nearly bankrupt and mostly dysfunctional, just like Harvard Pilgrim was when I took on that challenge almost 11 years ago.  I know I can put together a strong team, build a reform agenda that works, and get this state moving in a positive direction again.  So much of this is about attitude and experience.  I’ve got plenty of both – and I want to put it to work for the people of this great state.

Finally, there will be 100 days left in this election season on Sunday, and we will be up against all the forces of the status quo.  No one should underestimate their intensity or their desire to hold onto what they’ve got.  I will need your continued help and involvement to see this through to victory.  Find 10 people who will contribute something – anything – to our campaign, and send them to our website to donate. Find 10 people who will show up at a rally in their neighborhood in the fall, and bring their friends as well.  And make sure everyone knows that November 2nd is Election Day!

You’ve all been great supporters for the past 12 months, and I am awed and humbled by your help.  But it’s the beginning of the fourth quarter folks.  It’s time to make it happen.

Let’s go get ‘em!

Charlie

July 9, 2010

22 Days for Beacon Hill to Make Progress

Hey Team,

I couldn’t begin this post without again extending a big thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who marched with us over the 4th of July weekend in the scorching heat! We had a great turnout and got a great reception at each of the parades we were in – thank you! We couldn’t have done it without you.

We have some great footage from the weekend, so check it out by clicking here.

We had great news out of the fundraising world this week – our numbers are on the rise and ahead of our opponents, but we need to keep up the momentum! We know Deval Patrick and Tim Murray and their allies will spend heavily in the fall to try and win the election, so we have to outdo their efforts.

We also had our first call at home event this week, putting to work our new Team Baker Online Action Center. In one night, from their own homes, we had dozens of volunteers making calls across the state to thousands of voters! It was really awesome and a big thank you to everyone who made calls. It’s a great tool and we plan to use it as much as possible between now and November 2, so if you haven’t yet, go here and sign up to make calls! Team Baker Online Action Center

One more note, there are now 22 days left in the legislative session this year before Beacon Hill goes home for the summer. My running-mate, Richard Tisei, is working hard to push some – any – reforms through the Senate during these final days to save taxpayers money and lessen the impact of local aid cuts on cities and towns, but as usual he’s met with a lot of resistance from the special interests. This year marks the third in a row that local aid has been cut, forcing teacher layoffs, fewer firefighters and police, shortened library hours, and a host of other local cutbacks. It can’t continue. Deval Patrick and Tim Cahill don’t support the reforms needed to change this habit of raising taxes or making cuts, but I DO! We can make this change.

See you on the campaign trail!

Charlie

June 19, 2010

My Thoughts from the Road, Week of June 14th

Hi everyone — There’s a lot going on out there.  First of all, we just launched our first TV ad of the campaign.  We tried to capture three messages in thirty seconds (not an easy task):

  • I’m a Massachusetts kid – always have been and always will be;
  • I know something about turnarounds – which we need – now more than ever, and;
  • Unlike the crowd up on Beacon Hill, my primary focus will be creating jobs, cutting spending and cutting taxes.

I look forward to your feedback!

If you’ve been following the campaign on Facebook (and if you’re not, you should try to), you know we’ve been crisscrossing the Commonwealth on our “Had Enough?” Tour.  And while the stories vary from place to place, the overwhelming message from the voters we talk to is the same – they’ve had enough – of tax increases, over-spending, local aid cuts, bad behavior and no real reform on Beacon Hill.

We’re posting weekly video updates from the campaign trail on our Facebook and campaign page every week.  Here’s our most recent recap of last week. Be sure to check it out!


We had the first debate this week between Governor Deval Patrick, Treasurer Tim Cahill and me, hosted on WRKO by Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg.  We covered a bunch of topics – jobs, spending, taxes, education, immigration and health care among them – using a pretty unstructured format.  My message was pretty simple – I’m not part of the team that delivered the mess we’ve got on Beacon Hill, but my two opponents are.  I have plans to cut spending and reform state government, they don’t.  And I have the experience to get it done.

There have been many other highlights for me on the campaign trail, but I thought I’d mention just a couple of items this week.  The first was our visit a few weeks back to Brockton High School, which has done a terrific job of delivering a high quality education for the kids in that community.  Almost everyone who graduates from Brockton HS goes on to some form of higher education, and their kids perform at the statewide average on the MCAS English and Math tests.  This sets Brockton apart from most other urban school districts.  It’s a tribute to the administrators and the teachers, and the kids and their parents. But this progress wasn’t easy and it took a “we have to be better than that” approach. They did it, and we can’t backtrack from that progress. That’s why I push back when Governor Patrick talks about abandoning the MCAS. And that’s why we say Beacon Hill needs to give cities and towns the tools they need to better manage their budgets and spending.

(more…)

May 28, 2010

Memorial Day

Hi everyone,

Memorial Day week-end is the unofficial beginning of summer for many folks here in Massachusetts, and I hope everyone has a chance to get outside and enjoy the sun.  But it’s also very important for us all to remember that this is, in fact, MEMORIAL DAY week-end – our annual opportunity to remember and honor the servicemen and women who have died protecting us and this great country of ours, and their families.

For folks like me from Swampscott, that means honoring the memories of the three kids from Swampscott who lost their lives fighting for us in Iraq – Jennifer Harris, Jared Raymond and Justin Mooers.  It means thanking the young men and women from Swampscott who’ve served in every conflict and lost their lives.  And it means remembering and honoring the brave men and women – and their families – who have given so much to us with their service and their collective sacrifice.

I thought I’d also take this moment to share the remarks former candidate for Congress Don Hussey gave at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Scituate back in March.

Don is a civic minded guy.  He’s run for office before – twice that I know of in primaries against State Senator Bob Hedlund – and is a lifelong Republican.  He was also one of the first people to get into the race against Congressman Bill Delahunt – before U.S. Senator Scott Brown’s victory, and before anyone thought Delahunt might be vulnerable, or might not run again.

Don was the last person to speak in Scituate that morning, but he was, by far, the best.  He stood at the podium and talked about his family and his son – who is in the Army, and is now stationed in Germany – between tours of duty in Afghanistan.  Don said he’d recently learned that his son would be going back into Afghanistan in May or June, and that he simply didn’t think he could focus on a race for Congress at the same time he would be focusing on helping his daughter-in-law with his grandchildren, and worrying about his son.

Don showed us a journal he’s been keeping for the past year – mostly writing to himself and his son – after his son was almost killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) during his last tour in Afghanistan.  Don said he started writing the journal because he didn’t know if his son would be coming home again, and he wanted something to remember him by if he didn’t.

By now, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, and Don closed his comments by repeating the back and forth he had had with his son at the end of their last phone call…”I love you boy…I love you dad…”

I can’t recall ever being so moved by such a short speech.  I got all choked up when I hugged my 19 year-old son and sent him off to college.  No matter how proud a parent must be – and Don is as proud of his son as they come – I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to send a child off to war.  God Bless you Don, God Bless your son, and God Bless all of our sons and daughters in harm’s way this Memorial Day week-end.

Charlie Baker

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