While in office, former governor Charlie Baker was the Republican who Massachusetts voters liked better than most Republican activists did. Now, he’s stepping into a political debate that puts him directly back at odds with the state’s Republican grassroots — and many Democrats, too.
Baker is endorsing a ballot question that would do away with partisan primaries for state elections, offering proponents a surrogate whose political popularity was built on bucking, and blurring, party lines.
Question 3 would scrap political party primaries for state elections and replace them with a system where all candidates, regardless of party, would be listed on a single primary ballot. The top two would then advance to the November election.
The proposal “will give voters more choice and our elected officials will have to reach across the aisle to voters from other parties if they want to be successful,” Baker said in a statement shared by the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, which is pushing the ballot question.
Baker appeared to root his support in his own experience as a Republican governor contending with veto-proof Democratic majorities in the Legislature.
“As governor, I worked hard to listen to different points of view because that’s the only way for leaders to find the best ideas and reach common ground to get important stuff done,” Baker said. A so-called all-party primary system, he added, “will return the focus to what matters most: delivering meaningful results for the people of our Commonwealth.”
Baker never wrapped himself in the GOP brand during his eight years in office, enough so that he fended off suggestions of running instead as an independent. But backing the question is a notable break from the party for the former governor, who, more than three years after leaving office, is perhaps still the state’s highest-profile Republican.
A consummate moderate who regularly clashed with his party’s more conservative base, Baker is also the kind of candidate supporters of Question 3 say could benefit from a system they argue rewards broader appeal rather than ideological loyalty.
A candidate who might struggle to win over the most conservative or progressive voters in a traditional primary could theoretically have a better shot if the entire electorate were voting in a primary, the proposal’s backers argue. That, they say, could open the door to more independent-minded, middle-of-the-road candidates to advance.
The proposals opponents — which include both the state GOP and Democratic Party leaders — frame it differently. They’ve argued that the question is a play by powerful donors to be able to more easily influence elections, pointing to the ballot campaign’s backing from the private equity world. Other Republicans fear it could box their party out of the general election completely in many of the state’s deep-blue districts.
When he opted not to seek a third term in 2022, Baker himself avoided a potentially bruising primary against the Donald Trump-endorsed Geoff Diehl.
Now leading the NCAA, Baker has been careful to pick his spots when it comes to endorsements this election. This year, he’s backing Micah Q. Jones, the Republican nominee in the Sixth Congressional District, which includes Swampscott, Baker’s hometown. He’s also thrown his support behind Democratic state Representative Chris Markey in the Bristol County district attorney’s race, despite Markey’s matchup with a Republican, Seth Aitken. He’s notably been absent from the governor’s race, though that hasn’t stopped GOP nominee Michael Minogue from invoking his name and image in an attempt to borrow some of his political cachet.
Backing the question puts Baker in unlikely company. Former Democratic governor Deval Patrick, whom Baker first ran against in 2010 and succeeded four years later, was among the proposal’s earliest backers, joining former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Danielle Allen.
Not among the proposals fans: Baker’s own successor, Maura Healey. The first-term governor said in an appearance on WCVB’s “On The Record” on Sunday that while she supports ranked-choice voting — a measure voters rejected six years ago — she’s not sold on scrapping party primaries.
“I’m not sure about a jungle primary,” Healey said.
How do you plan to vote on Question 3? Let us know here.
BORDER LINES: GOP Senate nominee John Deaton is wading directly into a debate few Republicans running in blue states are centering their campaigns on: immigration.
And to do so, he traveled to a locale where few Republicans are campaigning. Deaton on Friday toured the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Burlington that has been a regular stop for members of the state’s all-Democrat delegation as they’ve tried to make resistance to the Trump administration’s federal immigration crackdown a part of their own campaign pitches.
The office, which doubles as a holding facility, has long drawn criticism for grim conditions and lack of medical care. Deaton’s initial takeaway? The facility there is “better than your typical jail,” Deaton told reporters, citing his brief stint in a Rhode Island jail after he was arrested in 2017 for an altercation at a youth football game. (The charges were ultimately dismissed.)
He said he wanted to visit the site ahead of his Oct. 13 debate with incumbent US Senator Ed Markey so he would have “firsthand knowledge” of the conditions there, should the immigration debate flare up on the debate stage. (Spoiler: It almost certainly will. Markey himself has called for ICE to be abolished.)
The visit didn’t alter his view of the federal immigration crackdown, Deaton said, but “confirmed” his support for the Obama-era “Secure Communities” immigration enforcement system. Deaton has hitched his appeal to Massachusetts voters, in part, on the distance he puts between himself and Trump, who he said he’s never voted for.
“We’re not going to end federal immigration law,” he said Friday. “That doesn’t mean we don’t reform it. That doesn’t mean we don’t make sure there’s proper training and that there’s body cams and that there’s third-party inspections and audits.”
NATURAL FIT: The campaign backing Question 6 is hitting digital platforms Monday with a new ad, backed by at least $1 million in spending, plugging the proposal that would funnel a portion of state sales taxes toward a new natural resource conservation fund.
The question, “protects the forests and wetlands that filter our drinking water and protects the birds, fish and pollinators that live here,” Matt Zieper, a ranger with The Trustees of Reservations, says in the ad.
Question 6 would redirect tax revenue from sporting goods, recreational vehicles and golf courses into a fund dedicated to protecting the state’s green spaces and water resources. It wouldn’t create any new taxes, but could have a ripple effect on the state’s budget, according to state officials.
MACHINE POLITICS: Like it or not, the first-ever AI election is underway by Sam Brodey, The Boston Globe: Pushed by long-shot candidates and powerful party groups alike, AI-generated images are now ubiquitous on social media feeds and TV screens, and are also blurring the line between political perception and reality in unprecedented ways. Millions of voters are turning to AI chatbots to ask all manner of questions about politics: where a candidate stands on issues, how they should allocate their donations, even where and how they should vote.
BANK STATEMENT: GOP nominee Michael Minogue spent $6.1 million last month in bid against Maura Healey, setting a governor’s race record by Chris Van Buskirk, The Boston Globe: Minogue’s September spending — fueled by millions of dollars in advertising costs, according to a filing he submitted Friday — is roughly double what Healey or Baker have reported spending in a single month across their runs for governor, according to a Globe review of campaign finance filings.
RELATED: Massachusetts union bosses criticize GOP nominee Michael Minogue’s campaign spending, wealth by Chris Van Buskirk, The Boston Globe.
PASSING THE BUCKS: Sixth Congressional District hopeful Dan Koh is still raking in campaign cash as he prepares to face Jones, the Republican nominee, in November. But with his Democratic primary in the rearview, not all of it is going toward his own bid.
Koh’s campaign says he raised roughly $710,000 between July and September, including about $165,000 he loaned to his campaign in the waning days of the Sept. 1 primary.
He’s also started putting money toward candidates running in battleground districts. Koh’s joint fundraising committee, Do The Work PAC, brought in around $140,000 since he launched it in September, cash that’s gone out to US Representative Shomari Figures in Alabama, Cait Conley in New York, Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey, and JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona, according to the campaign.
CURB ENTHUSIASM: Boston, T scrap plans to extend region’s first-ever center-running bus lane on Columbus Avenue by Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe: Since its debut five years ago, the center-running bus lane on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury has been lauded by Mayor Michelle Wu and the MBTA, who say the project helped speed up bus travel and slow cars. But officials have scrapped longstanding plans to extend it by another mile in favor of a more traditional curb-hugging design, pivoting away from a concept that has caused an uproar in other closely watched transit projects, including along Blue Hill Avenue.
AD NAUSEAM: A new campaign on the T criticized BPS. Then the ads were pulled down. by John Hilliard, The Boston Globe: The MBTA abruptly yanked ads posted on MBTA subway cars blasting Boston’s public schools on Thursday, saying they violated a policy in the organization’s advertising guidelines. But they were removed the day after the Globe asked questions about them, and now the organizers behind the $1.5 million ad campaign are accusing the T of censorship.
DRIVING CHANGE: Somerville is intentionally making roads harder to drive on. It’s getting results. by Spencer Buell, The Boston Globe: Somerville is experimenting with extreme street makeovers as the city tries to prevent deadly crashes on its roads by intentionally making it harder to drive on them, turning side streets into comfortable routes for people who aren’t traveling by car, and cutting down on the risk posed by too many cars going too fast.
GOP Senate candidate John Deaton’s law office vandalized by Tim Dunn, Boston Herald.
Mortgage rates soar, dumping more gas on Massachusetts’ housing crisis by Andrew Brinker, The Boston Globe.
Liberty Junction releases proposed timeline for design construction of new courthouse by Jeanette DeForge, The Republican.
The MBTA vowed to step up fare enforcement. A year later, few warnings and even fewer fines by Will Katcher, MassLive.
Accusations fly as Brockton School Committee member ousted from subcommittee seats by Jacob Posner, The Enterprise.
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This newsletter was edited and produced by Matt Stout.
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Kelly Garrity can be reached at kelly.garrity@globe.com.