I have to admit that this one crept up on me, unnoticed (and I lived in this state for 20 years). Karyn Bruggeman of National Journal reports:
And then there’s Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. After four months in office, the Republican governor of this deeply Democratic-leaning state is cruising at high altitude, enjoying sky-high approval ratings. And Baker’s top advisers and outside observers say the reasons for his popularity are relatively simple: He’s just keeping his head down and running the state.
“He’s just keeping his head down and running the state.”
This is where so many politicians go wrong. My current favorite example is Mayor de Blasio. The mayoralty of New York is an EXECUTIVE position. A lot of it is about mundane, non-partisan, unglamorous things like making sure the leaky roof at P.S. 75 gets fixed, the city patroll gets out on time, and the snow on the walkways in Central Park gets shoveled. But people like de Blasio are ideologues in extremis, and they try to impose their grand, ivory-tower agendas on positions that should be administrative in nature. Can you say, “universal preschool,” for example?
How could any man named Charley not have a high approval rating?
If the people of Mass. can elect a Republican Gov, then they can elect a Republican President!
In reading the story it seems that Massachusetts state and local politics is a cesspool of corruption, cronyism, racism etc all of which is run by Democrats. This Governor appointed these people to work within his administration and made it a point to work together with the Democrats. This begs the question what makes this Governor a Republican or for that matter a conservative? He may have a 70% approval rating but I suspect that is a result of a bunch of democrats approving of the way they seem to have a new pet Republican. Screw the approval ratings. If there is as much political cronyism and corruption in that state as the story implied he should be ashamed to be working so closely with them.