The next election for governor is almost a year away.
Announced candidates include three Democrats, Harvard professor Danielle Allen, state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and former state senator Ben Downing, and one Republican, former state representative Geoff Diehl, who's been endorsed by Donald Trump.
Rampant is the expectation that Maura Healey, our attorney general, will be in the race as well. Healey would be considered the frontrunner, both in the primary and general elections, the moment she announced.
Given how much Massachusetts likes having moderate Republican governors, like Baker and Mitt Romney, I have to wonder if there's a person of that stripe (or almost) who'd make a good candidate this time around. (It's in that context that the name of Andrew Lelling, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts under the Trump Justice Dept., has come up.)
Question: Why can't the moderate Republican lane -- fiscally conservative/socially liberal -- be filled in the 2022 gubernatorial campaign by a moderate Independent...or a moderate Democrat who, realizing he or she would likely lose a Democratic primary to Maura Healey, decides to run as an Independent...or a moderate Republican who, realizing he or she would likely lose the Republican primary to Diehl, decides to run as an Independent?
There are some seriously qualified individuals with a great understanding of the public sector who, in theory, have a realistic path to the governorship if they took one of these routes.
In that category, I'd put Tom Glynn, former CEO of Partners Healthcare and former MassPort executive director; Putnam Investments CEO Bob Reynolds; and Jay Ash, former Chelsea city manager, former Secretary of Housing and Economic Development in the Baker administration, and current Massachusetts Competitive Partnership CEO.
Other names no doubt belong in this category.
...Let's consider Baker's decision not to seek a third consecutive four-year term, a prize definitely within his reach.
I believe the obvious reason is the real reason: he was tired of the endless demands of the office and unhappy with the rightward drift of his party, where more members have indicated they favor Diehl over him in next year's primary.
It could also be that Baker, who has remained highly popular with the mass of voters throughout his years in office, didn't want to press his luck.
Third consecutive terms for governors, as well as for other politicians with executive responsibilities, often turn into minefields. Third-termers can run into problems, for instance, in attracting, retaining and motivating top-notch staff and appointees.
Speaking some years ago with "City & State," George Arzt, press secretary for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch during Koch's third term, said: "The danger for any third-term executive is a malaise that settles over the workforce, and you have to keep the workforce energized with new ideas, new projects, creativity, and it's going to take fierce leadership to do that."
Fierce leadership.
That's what it takes to be a truly successful executive in the public realm. Maybe Charlie Baker just woke up one normal day, looked in the mirror and realized he had no more "fierce" to give as governor.
No comments:
Post a Comment