To the editor:
When I heard Gov. Charlie Baker was not going to run for reelection next year, I couldn’t help but remember an encounter I had with Baker many years ago in the basement of Nahant Town Hall.
A member of our Democratic Town Committee, Paul Spirn, was delivering a talk when I realized Baker slipped into a chair at the back of the room. I went over quietly and said hello.
“Is this the Republican committee?” he asked. “No,” I said, “it’s the Dem’s,” but I offered to help him look around Town Hall and find the Republicans.
When we walked out into the hall, some of the committee members’ children were sitting on a bench. I said to them, “Hey kids…this is what a Republican looks like.” We all had a good laugh.
Nahant kids attend Swampscott High School and every parent I’ve talked to who spent time with Baker around high school sports thought he was a genuine, good guy.
I became aware of Baker when he served Republican governors. He had a big influence on the financing of the Big Dig. His plan was a disaster that resulted in the gradual, widespread deterioration of Massachusetts’ transportation system.
The solution would have been to raise taxes to pay for maintenance, but that course of action was anathema to Baker’s boss and governor at the time, the late Paul A. Cellucci. It is interesting to note that after Baker left the Cellucci administration, he helped Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He raised the course of premiums, resulting in 24 profitable quarters. Borrowing prudently and raising taxes to pay for what we want is a reasonable course to take.
Political campaigns are never without rough edges. And they were not completely absent from Baker’s campaigns. But he was a political leader who valued human interaction. His beliefs were both firm and flexible.
I found myself wondering recently what the relationship might be like between Michelle Wu and Charlie Baker; between the visionary and the fellow looking for practical solutions. Both are good people.
I never voted for Charlie Baker, but that had nothing to do with his decent “political personality.” I once encountered a Democratic office holder at a political event who loudly announced that she hated Charlie Baker. “I don’t,” I told her. “I disagree with him.”
On the night that he and I encountered each other in the basement of Nahant Town Hall, we shook hands. I see political possibilities differently than Charlie Baker does. While I’ve never voted for him, I would willingly extend my hand in his direction, feeling confident that he would take it.
Jim Walsh is the longtime chair of the Nahant Democratic Town Committee.
