Now here's something that could be an issue in this race:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/...
The Republican gubernatorial candidate, Charlie Baker, wants only those companies with 50 or more employees to be required to offer paid sick time to their workers, according to the “Alternative Paid Sick Leave Initiative” he issued Monday.
A ballot question in November will ask Massachusetts voters if employees at companies with 11 or more workers would be allowed to earn and use paid sick time if they miss work for a variety of reasons dealing with their health or the health of a loved one.
The ballot question calls for unpaid sick time for employees at smaller companies.
Baker suggests significantly increasing the number of workers required before a company must comply with the paid sick time requirement, “as businesses of this size tend to have real human resources capabilities,” said a statement from his campaign.
The former health care executive has said he plans to vote no on Question 4 because its restrictive, one-size-fits-all nature is not in the best interest of workers and businesses in the Commonwealth. - Boston Globe, 9/29/14
At least we know where Baker stands on this issue. On the other issues, it's hard to get a straight answer from him:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/...
If you follow Baker on Twitter, you’ll see him checking in from Red Sox games and rock concerts. (In March, at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast in Southie, he got choked up talking about how his favorite Boston band, Dropkick Murphys, played at a U.S. soldier’s funeral.) He loves to chat about movies and speaks comfortably about his openly gay brother. But despite his best efforts, Baker often seems unaware of his inability to connect with ordinary people who lead ordinary lives. Constituents come across as abstractions. Luckily for him, his opponent seems to have the same problems.
Whether Charlie can beat Martha may rest on a bigger question: Can Baker sell Massachusetts on his fiscal policies? He wants to make government better by making it smaller, leaner, less unionized, and more business-friendly. This philosophy served him well in his 10 years running Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, where he shut down the provider’s Rhode Island operations, leaving some 1,200 people out of work and 128,000 without health insurance. During his 2010 campaign, Baker said he would do the same for state government.
Now, cuts to state spending aren’t spelled out in his platform—they’re implied. Baker has ruled out new taxes and called for revenue cuts—at the same time proposing significant increases to local aid and at least two dozen new expenses. It sounds like a promise to taxpayers that they can have their cake and eat it, too—but Baker points out that Coakley has proposed far more expensive programs (for example, universal pre-kindergarten). If his plans will require deep cuts in government jobs, he’s learned his lesson too well to say so before election day.
It can sometimes seem as if Baker’s strategy is to smile, say nothing, and wait for Coakley to blow it, as she did against Scott Brown. Coakley’s strategy, by contrast, is to shake hands, say nothing, and hope that Charlie Baker blows it, as he did against Patrick. This makes for one of the more boring political contests in Massachusetts history. As our Brighton Café interview was winding down, I asked Baker—three times, point blank—for a criticism of his opponent.
This is an exact transcript, although it took him over a minute to choke the whole thing out: “I guess I would say that…I’m running for governor, and I think I would be—based on my experience and my skill set and my vision—the right guy to be governor in Massachusetts. I’ve—I guess I would say about Martha’s—I don’t really think about it that way. I think about the way the candidates who are running would perform as governor, because that’s the job we’re all interested in.” - Boston Magazine, 9/30/14
Unfortunately, this doofus is in a competitive race:
http://www.necn.com/...
A new Boston Herald-Suffolk University poll released Monday shows that Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker are basically tied in the Massachusetts governor's race.
The poll has Coakley with a slight edge, at 43.8 percent, compared to Baker's 43.2 percent. Independent Evan Falchuck came in at 2 percent, followed by independents Jeffrey McCormick at 1.6 percent and Scott Douglas Lively at 0.4 percent. Only 8.4 percent said they are undecided at this point.
The poll also addressed the recent incident where Baker called a female reporter "Sweetheart," asking voters if they felt the comment was condescending. Nearly half of those surveyed (47.2 percent) said no, 39.2 percent said yes and 13.6 percent said they were undecided.
When it comes to whether voters trust Baker to stand up for women's rights, 46.8 percent said they would trust the GOP candidate, while 34.2 percent said they would not. Another 19 percent were undecided. - NECN, 9/29/14
We can beat this guy, we just have to make sure our base gets to the polls. Click here to get involved and donate to Martha Coakley's (D. MA) campaign:
http://www.marthacoakley.com/