Governor Charlie Baker on Monday called former US senator Scott Brown a worthy candidate for the top veterans affairs post that President-elect Donald Trump is considering assigning him, but stopped short of a full endorsement.
“I certainly think he would be a worthy and worthwhile candidate, but obviously the decisions on this one are going to be made by the Trump administration and by Scott, but I think he’s certainly worthy of consideration,” Baker said.
Baker told reporters that Brown possesses “the skill set and the experience to be a worthy candidate for” Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
On Monday, Brown visited Trump Tower, headquarters of the Trump administration’s transition efforts. Brown said Friday that he had spoken with Trump earlier in the day and brought up the Cabinet post himself, receiving a positive reaction from the president-elect, whom he endorsed shortly before the New Hampshire primary.
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“He said he’s making his highest recommendation to his committee that they consider me,” Brown told the Globe.
Baker, speaking after a meeting with legislative leaders in his State House offices, called it “a little early” for the state’s leaders to begin making decisions based on assumptions about the Trump presidency.
“I think we should wait and see over the course of the next several months, and obviously the first big thing will be the president-elect’s submission of the first budget, which will tell us a lot,” Baker said. “But I think it would be complicated and maybe a little risky for us to go too far down the road with assumptions.”
Baker, who was frequently critical of Trump during the campaign and said he did not vote in the presidential election, said he would build his budget proposal for the next fiscal year on “the current state of affairs.”
Similarly, both state Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo said Trump’s choice of Alabama Republican US Senator Jeff Sessions, an avowed critic of marijuana use, would not alter their intentions of implementing the new, voter-approved law legalizing the drug.
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Jim O’Sullivan can be reached at jim.osullivan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JOSreports.