WOW … For the First Time in 20 Years The Boston Globe Enforces GOP Governor Candidate Charlie Baker over Liberal Martha Coakley

WOW, WOW, WOW …

The Boston Globe has endorsed Republican Charlie Baker over the Democrat candidate, Attorney General Martha Coakley!!! Yes, you read that correctly. The Boston Globe, for the first time in 20 years, on Sunday endorced the GOP candidate Charlie Baker for Massachusetts governor over Martha Coakley. As stated at NRO, while Massachusetts has a track record of Republican governors, the Globe’s endorsement is rather surprising: The last time the paper backed a GOP gubernatorial nominee was in 1994, when it picked Bill Weld.

The average RCP polling has Baker up by 4.5%; however, the most recent Boston Globe poll has Baker over Coakley by 9.

Charlie Baker for Governor

This year’s race for governor unfolds beneath mostly sunny skies. In the last eight years, Massachusetts withstood a brutal recession far better than most states did. It came through a terrorist bombing more unified than it had been. Greater Boston’s innovation economy is thriving, and a construction boom is reshaping the skyline. In the major-party candidates — Republican Charlie Baker and Democrat Martha Coakley — voters are lucky to have two experienced, trustworthy public servants who can capably govern a state whose schools and hospitals are the envy of the nation. Three independent candidates offer voters a breadth of additional choices, and their presence on the ballot testifies to the vitality of the political culture in Massachusetts.

Not all is entirely well in the Commonwealth, though. In cities and towns far removed from the shiny new towers of Cambridge’s Kendall Square or Boston’s Seaport District, the economic picture looks much dimmer. Meanwhile, cracks are showing in the edifice of state government itself. The Department of Children and Families, the Probation Department, the state crime lab, the board that regulates compounding pharmacies, the state Labor Department’s unemployment system, the Health Connector website — voters have come to know all these terms as shorthand for the kind of bureaucratic failures that make them doubt state government’s ability to help Massachusetts move forward.

Effective activist government isn’t built on good intentions. To provide consistently good results, especially for the state’s most vulnerable and troubled residents, agencies need to focus on outcomes, learn from their errors, and preserve and replicate approaches that succeed. Baker, a former health care executive, has made a career of doing just that. During this campaign, he has focused principally on making state government work better. The emphasis is warranted. And in that spirit, the Globe endorses Charlie Baker for governor.

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One needn’t agree with every last one of Baker’s views to conclude that, at this time, the Republican nominee would provide the best counterpoint to the instincts of an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature. His candidacy opens up the possibility of creative tension. Facing veto-proof Democratic majorities in both houses, Baker would have no choice but to work constructively with the Legislature. Likewise, the Legislature would have to engage with Baker’s initiatives.

Perhaps ironically, in light of their differing partisan affiliations, Baker’s candidacy offers an opportunity to consolidate some of the advances made during the administration of Deval Patrick. Baker could be counted on to preserve and extend educational reforms, to ensure the rigorous administration of new funds for transportation, to knowledgeably oversee the cost-containment law now reshaping the state’s signature health care industry. At a difficult inflection point in state government, Massachusetts needs a governor who’s focused on steady management and demonstrable results.