By Ben Storrow
from Daily Hampshire Gazette – Gazettenet.com
February 19, 2010
Jill Stein, Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Massachusetts governor, speaks Thursday at the Amherst Police Department. Photo by Jerry Roberts
No one would accuse Charlie Baker, a Republican, and Jill Stein, of the Green-Rainbow Party, of being similar candidates in terms of style or substance. The two outlined vastly different visions for the state’s future at their separate campaign events.
The soft-spoken Baker called for lowering taxes, reducing regulations on businesses and consolidating the state’s many departments and authorities. In contrast, Stein delivered a fiery speech in which she took aim at what she called the “corporate welfare” policies of Beacon Hill.
Yet when it came to the state’s current chief executive, the two candidates sounded similar themes, criticizing Patrick for reducing local aid and transportation funds for regional schools while also questioning the governor’s handling of the state budget.
“For me, in some ways, one of the seminal events was the decision to basically balance the budget last year by raising taxes and cutting local aid,” Baker said, speaking to a houseful of nearly 20 people at the family residence of Cinda Jones, president of W.D. Cowls Inc. in North Amherst. “That said to me that if we really are going to choose to balance our budget by raising taxes and cutting local aid, then we’re not really serious about reforming state government. That had a lot to do with my decision about jumping into this race.”
Stein, for her part, spoke at length about what she said was the corruption of Beacon Hill and the willingness of lawmakers there to do the bidding of Wall Street corporations. Four years with a Democratic governor and a Democratic Legislature had not brought the state a single-payer health care system, greater commitment to green energy initiatives or job growth, Stein said.
“We’ve been through two cycles of change we could believe in, and it turned out be exactly that, a belief,” Stein said, in her speech to nearly a dozen people at Amherst Police Station meeting room. “If you’ve had enough bailouts, enough payoffs and enough rip-offs, this is the campaign for you.”
Baker, a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, who served as the secretary of both the Department of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of Administration and Finance under former Republican governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, was the first to arrive Thursday.
Baker bankrolled
The Republican came to Amherst as an already formidable candidate in this year’s gubernatorial contest, having raised $2.3 million over the latter half of 2009 and attracted the attention of socially liberal voters for his pro-choice and pro-gay marriage positions.
In his comments Thursday, Baker said he would take a regionally based approach to economic development, developing the comparative advantages of each of the state’s counties while also working to address each region’s respective needs.
The state has witnessed an exodus of young and middle-aged residents over the past decade, Baker said, due to the high cost of doing business in the commonwealth. He proposed lowering taxes and reducing regulations on business as a means of promoting job growth.
On the subject of the state budget, he contended that the Patrick administration had hired an additional 7,000 state employees since 2004 – the governor’s term began in 2006 – and that the governor had sought to balance the state’s budget by increasing taxes.
“I watched families tighten their belt, I watched businesses tighten their belt and I did not really believe that the state was tightening their belt with the same enthusiasm that everyone else was tightening theirs with,” Baker said.
In interviews, many of those present at the Republican event reported being Democrats or independents, a hopeful sign for Baker, who will need to garner support from both groups if he is to triumph in the general election this fall. Independents accounted for 50 percent of the state’s registered voters in 2008, while Democrats and Republicans represented 36 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Baker seemed to make a direct appeal to moderate voters in his comments Thursday, saying he would work with Democrats in the Legislature to solve the state’s problems if elected. He also noted that his mother was a Democrat and his father was a Republican, a mix, he said, that produced beneficial results.
“I got to see the checks and balances play out over the kitchen table and, come to think of it, that was not such a bad thing,” Baker said.
It remained less clear if Baker had succeeded in wooing any Democrats and independents in attendance.
Andy Churchill, a member of the Amherst School Committee and a registered Democrat, said Baker struck him as thoughtful and someone who knows how state government works. While he was heartened by Baker’s promise to spare local aid the budgetary ax, he worried about the candidate’s ability to deliver on his promises.
“He wants to cut taxes, balance local aid and lay off state workers in the middle of a recession,” Churchill said. “We’ll see how that works.”
“I came here today because I could meet someone who could be the next governor and because I am concerned about local aid and wanted to make sure that was on his radar,” Churchill said. “Whether I vote for him or not is another matter.”
Stein’s turn
Later in the day it was Stein’s turn to press her case. Stein, a Lexington doctor, arrived in Amherst in a vastly different position than her Republican counterpart. The Green-Rainbow Party candidate entered the month of February with $11,000 in her campaign account, leaving her with the daunting task of overcoming the three well-financed candidates in the field, Baker, Patrick and independent Tim Cahill, the state treasurer.
Yet if Stein was daunted by that disadvantage, she showed no sign of it in her speech. She said she would repeal tax exemptions for large corporations and would instead focus on growing the local economy.
“If we really want to create jobs, they need to be locally grown,” Stein said, arguing for increased support of local agriculture and alternative energy initiatives.
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