Baker doesn’t need help from GPS to get himself to Dorchester

On every Sunday this month, Republican Charlie Baker has made a stop in Dorchester. More than any other gubernatorial candidate, he has taken precious time this year to campaign in the traditionally deep-blue neighborhood, attending fundraisers, community events, and marching in the Dorchester Day parade.

In all, since the first of the year, Baker has made 24 public visits to the neighborhood, including his primary night victory party at Venezia and time spent behind the bar at last week’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Eire Pub.

That’s not to say that Democrat candidate Martha Coakley is necessarily resting on her laurels in the neighborhood she once called home. The attorney general has to date made 17 campaign stops in Dorchester, many of them endorsement events with elected officials, including City Councillor Ayanna Pressley, state Rep. Dan Cullinane, and US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. In addition, she made several visits with organized labor at the 1199 SEIU headquarters on Columbia Point.

While both campaigns are careful to note that neither has solely focused on Dorchester, what remains noteworthy is Baker’s continued presence in such a traditional Democratic stronghold.

In an interview with the Reporter, Baker refrained from saying he sought to paint Dorchester red, calling his visits “an opportunity to learn from a group of folks in the community that are pretty engaged and pretty thoughtful on a lot of different issues.”

“One of the things I’ve committed myself to in this race,” he said, “is that I’ve wanted the time that I’ve spent to be purposeful, to have the opportunity to deliver my message and to engage in conversation in different parts of Massachusetts. I’ve been honored, pleased, and thrilled in dialogues I’ve had with people in Dorchester.” Baker, a Swampscott resident, added that a “big part” of his campaign’s job creation policy was shaped by conversations he had in Dorchester.

Baker has already gained support from longtime Democratic notables. He has secured endorsements from Quincy Mayor Tom Koch and well-known Boston businessman/philanthropist Jack Connors. But other Democrats are not taking Baker’s presence in their strongholds lying down. “He can spend as much time as he would like at bars, barbecues, and block parties, trying to pretend he fits in, but it does not change the fact that Charlie Baker has very little in common with the working families of Dorchester,” said Rep. Cullinane, who once worked in Coakley’s attorney general office and now serves as her campaign’s statewide labor chair. “I know a lot of nice guys who are great to share a laugh and a beer with, but that doesn’t mean they should be governor.”

For his part, Baker said, “I’d rather talk to somebody over a beer and a hamburger than in a more formal way. Just because you’re at a cookout it doesn’t mean you can’t talk to someone,” Baker added. “You meet them on their terms on their backyard.”

The backyards and cookouts in Dorchester are not completely new fare for Baker. Despite his decisive loss to Deval Patrick in 2010, Baker enjoyed a respectable level of support in Dorchester’s Ward 16, which includes Florian Hall and Adams Village. In 16-9, regarded as one of the most conservative precincts in the city, Baker lost to Patrick by just 17 votes.

One of Baker’s 2010 supporters in Ward 16 was Matt Sweeney of St. Brendan’s Parish. This time around, Sweeney has helped out here and there on the Baker campaign, organizing a door- knocking event with the candidate in July and helping to distribute signs. Sweeney said he has been surprised by the support already in the neighborhood; he is getting more volunteers than expected, and more lawn sign requests than there are signs to display.

Even Sweeney’s Kennedy Democrat father has come out for Baker. “I think it’s because of the message and how the economy’s doing,” he said. “People are saying that we need people in the middle, we need bipartisan leadership. And Charlie can do that,” Sweeney said. “I look at people who are stalwart Democrats and they’re coming and saying that they’re behind him. There’s a change in the air.”

Sweeney predicted that that change will be felt not just in Dorchester, but in cities across the state. “Charlie did well in the suburbs in 2010, but I think this time, we’ll see numbers will go up in Boston, Brockton, and Lowell and throughout the state.”

Nonetheless, the Coakley campaign remains confident as the candidate and her supporters continue to knock on doors, engage voters, and keep on message. “Our strategy has been clear from the beginning: building and growing our organization across the commonwealth,” said Tim Foley, Coakley’s campaign director. “We feel confident about strength of the campaign in Dorchester, Boston and everywhere else.”

Although Baker seems to have made inroads in parts of the neighborhood, Cullinane predicted that things will change over the next six weeks before the general election. “Right now, the activists are really tired,” he said. “It’s been election after election and people are still unpacking from the primary. But over the next few weeks, people will suit back up when they realize what’s at stake.”

When asked if all the time he is spending in Dorchester might mean a move to the neighborhood down the road, Baker laughed and said he would have to talk it over with his wife Lauren.


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