Holiday Event
December 16, 2009

Thank you Curt for that terrific introduction – and thanks so much to all of you for coming out tonight. You could be anywhere this time of year – and I want you to know how grateful I am that you’re here with us. Your support means the world to me – and to our campaign.

And while I’m in the “thank you attic” – I want to thank our three Finance Chairs – Chris Collins, Mike Crossen and Chris Egan.

Tonight’s Event Chairs –
• Leon Asadoorian
• Rafik Attia
• Brian Casey
• Chris Covington
• Elinor Fagan
• Francois and Lucie Gadenne
• Brian Kavoogian
• Greg Keating
• Rick Lawton
• Matt LeBretton
• Peter Peters
• And Spencer Zwick

And – of course – the Host Committee – all 80 members! You guys rock!

I also want to deliver a very special thank you to my wife Lauren. Without her, there would be no candidate and there would be no campaign.

Since I just got grilled with a pop quiz on Channel 5’s “On the Record” – I thought I’d put you all through one of your own. This one has two questions – and in this case, volume matters!

Here’s the first one:

Is this the best time of year or what?

No one succeeds in life on their own. We all get there with the support of our friends and our family. Thanks for making us part of your extended family!

Question #2
And are we going to win back the State House in 2010 and turn Massachusetts around?

Is that your final answer?

Next year’s election – you’ve all heard me say this before – will be about three things:
• Political Balance
• The State Budget
• Getting people back to work.

We will be on the right side of all three issues.

Even my friends who are Democrats tell me that enough is enough. One Party rule is a bad idea. It’s stifling and small minded.

Good ideas die on the vine – and bad ones grow and grow. The Patrick Administration has the money to hire thousands of new employees – but not enough money to support the homeless. They have more money for their own wage increases, but not enough money for people with developmental disabilities.

They blame the economy for their problems. They blame George Bush. They blame the legislature. They blame Wall Street. Well, George Bush didn’t spend $700MM of your money out of the State’s Rainy Day Fund before it started to rain. Wall Street didn’t spend the state’s savings account on program operations. And the legislature didn’t finish 49th out of 50th in releasing federal stimulus funds that were supposed to get people back to work!

Let me tell you something. I’ve been part of two turnarounds – one in the 1990s with former Governors Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci – and one when I took over Harvard Pilgrim some ten years ago.

Turnarounds start when the guy in charge stops blaming everyone else for his problems and embraces the opportunity in front of him that each crisis creates.

I not only accept that opportunity – I look forward to it. We have an historic opportunity to simplify and streamline state government – and we should take it!

State government is layered, bureaucratic and unaccountable. The people of Massachusetts deserve better. They’re struggling to pay their bills. They worry about their jobs. They are tightening their belts every single day. They deserve a state government that tightens its belt the same way they have to tighten theirs. And they deserve it NOW.

This watching and waiting stuff is nuts. Turnarounds are all about speed. Time is not your friend. If you’re not doing something today to make things better – you’re making things worse. Simply doing the same thing the same way – and then raising taxes and fees and cutting programs on the margin – is a recipe for disaster.

It’s time to give the people of Massachusetts the turnaround they deserve!

Your state government is unaffordable, unaccountable and unsustainable. Most important of all – it seems to care more about its own agenda than it does about yours.

We will simplify state government. We will change the way it does business. And we will demand it be accountable to you – the folks who pay the bills.

Instead of a state government that constantly changes the rules of the game – to suit its own needs and appetites – we will give families, small businesses, risk takers and job creators a state government they can count on – every single day.

Instead of a state government that spends most of its time hunting for money to feed the beast – we will deliver a state government that lives within its means.

Instead of a state government that balances its budget on the backs of the taxpayers and the cities and towns – we will deliver a state government that cleans up its own act first.

And instead of a state government that blames everyone but itself for its inability to clean up the mess – we will own the problems we face, build a team and a plan for success – and get stuff done. Every single day.

Big promises I suppose – but I’ve been there before. No one thought we could balance the state’s budget without raising taxes and get people back to work when I worked for Governors Weld and Cellucci. And no one thought Harvard Pilgrim would last six weeks when we went in receivership in 2000.

But we did balance the budget without raising taxes and we did get people back to work. And we did rescue Harvard Pilgrim – and Harvard Pilgrim did become the #1 health plan in America for 5 years in a row.

That’s what happens when you bring people together, build a plan, communicate that plan, and work it – hard – every single day.

Turnarounds are all about three yards and a cloud of dust. They’re not about pretty speeches and soaring rhetoric. They’re about owning the problem, getting the right people on the team, sharing bad news, pursuing your best ideas, making tough decisions and plowing ahead.

And they’re about faith – faith in your plan, faith in your team and faith in your community.

No one has more faith in the people of this great state than I do. You are creators – innovators – leaders and doers. And you deserve a state government that’s as committed to the common good as you are.

November 2010 is a long time from now – but trust me – it will be here in no time. Between now and then, we have a chance to end the circus on Beacon Hill and send in the grown-ups!

Massachusetts is at a crossroads. We will either create an affordable, accountable state government out of the crisis of today, or we won’t. It’s as simple as that.
I’m betting with your help – we will.

Good night! Be safe! And remember – if we all take Christmas off, there are only 14 days left to contribute to Team Baker in 2009!

Let’s go get ‘em!

Thanks!