Stunned by the results of the Nov. 4 city council contest? If yes, you’ve got something in common with fifth-place finisher Frank Baker, who spoke to The Reporter this week in his first interview since the election.
The former District 3 councilman, who had hoped to snag one of four at-large seats in November and a spot on the Inauguration Day dais in January, instead ended up more than 15,000 votes behind Henry Santana, who finished in fourth place on his way to re-election.
“I guess hard work doesn’t pay off these days,” Baker said at a sit-down in Savin Hill this week. “I think I had a machine that is driving the system working against me and knowing the systems.” When he was out on the campaign trail, he said, “I had very, very few poor interactions.”
He added, “I had a lot of goodwill sent my way. I had many people I didn’t know coming up to me saying they researched me and appreciate me, but I guess the city is bigger than I anticipated.”
Baker trailed Santana by about 4,000 votes in September’s preliminary and looking to the final in November, he was buoyed by public endorsements from elected officials like state Sens. Nick Collins and Lydia Edwards and state Reps. Chynah Tyler and Brandy Fluker-Reid, along with his longtime ally, former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
His campaign was also well financed. His own committee raised more than $300,000 —the most of any citywide council candidate this year. He also benefitted from outside spending from a political action committee called “A Balanced and Better Boston” that directed all of its spending to boost him and Erin Murphy, an incumbent councillor who finished third and was re-elected.
A Wu-aligned political action committee called “Bold Boston” spent $175,000 in the final month of the election cycle to support Santana, according to the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance. See more on Santana’s win, page 15.
Still, despite his outreach across the city — and heavy visibility with signs from Readville to Orient Heights— the energy did not translate into a Baker victory.
He captured 28,346 votes, or 10 percent of the at-large votes, while Santana finished with 43,904. Murphy notched 46,360— or 16 percent, all according to unofficial results from the city’s Election Department.
Baker said his strongest areas didn’t come out to vote in large enough numbers, specifically South Boston and parts of Dorchester, while other power bases in Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, where he did poorly, were energized.
“People here don’t feel there’s a reason to vote,” he said. “I thought they would come out to vote for me, but I guess I wasn’t enough. I guess people don’t want a balanced city council and they want a city council that does what they’re told. I thought there was room for someone like me that knows the issues, the questions to ask, and isn’t afraid to ask them.”
Baker said that he has taken time to process the loss and he noted a lot of things that he observed in campaigning. It was his first citywide election and he conceded that he got a late start in a race that required more time than he had to cover so much new territory.
But beyond that, he said, the city issues that were his bread and butter rarely were discussed. When it came to schools, once a perennial top five issue, he said, they emerged “hardly ever, even though 80 percent of our third graders can’t read at grade level.”
Today Baker gave her husband Frank a kiss on the night of the preliminary election in Sept. 2025. Seth Daniel photo
National issues – and the specter of President Donald Trump — took center stage locally, Baker argued.
“There was nobody talking about the city in this election,” he said. “We’re running on national issues when the city is suffering and that was allowed to happen. I’m Boston focused…What I noticed as I went through the neighborhoods is everybody is really the same: “They want safe neighborhoods and a city they feel has their backs. On the other side of the city where I did poorly, they were more into the national politics and not the schools or the city’s budget.”
Changing demographics and a more apathetic electorate — including many who don’t have children in the public schools— makes for part of Baker’s calculus for the loss. Coming from a large Savin Hill family in what was a scrappy working-class neighborhood, politics was once seen, he said, as a key to opening the door for kids and adults in the neighborhood.
Politicians provided leverage that may not be necessary for newer families today – making city government a low priority.
“We grew up on it and it was politics for breakfast every day,” he said. “All these families around here needed someone to call on for something. The new people that have moved in don’t need politics for their kid to get a job or to get a letter of recommendation like we did.
“That person moving in now is going to vote for president all the time because they see that as the most important,” he added. “Growing up here the most important vote was for mayor. The mayor can do more to affect your life, positively or negatively, than any other position.”
For all that, as first runner-up in the November balloting, Baker could end up with an at-large seat if a vacancy occurs within the next two years. As speculation swirls about a potential US Senate run by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley— and the possible chain reaction that could set off for her seat— there are scenarios in which that could happen.
But Baker isn’t gaming that out just yet. “I’d have to see where I am in my life,” he said. “I’ve been through these types of situations so many times where everybody is jockeying for something that may happen. I’ll make those decisions when they’re in front of me and there’s a decision to make.”
Taking a post on a council dominated by allies of Mayor Wu seemed to give him pause: “What kind of life is that for me?” he wondered aloud.
Meanwhile, private citizen Baker says he remains worried about some of the issues that motivated his run in the first place: Zoning plans put forward by the city, especially Squares + Streets and its reliance on “as of right building projects” that, he said, eliminate community involvement.
“It seems to me there is more and more bureaucracy and layers and layers of commissions,” he said. “How do we build more affordable housing? You get the government out of the way. That doesn’t mean more by-right development like the Squares + Streets.”
Most of all, he’s worried that no one – including the media and elected officials – will challenge a powerful mayor or the council that is mainly in her corner.
“The mayor has been in city government 10 or 12 years, and no one has ever asked her a hard question,” he said. “Maybe she’s on the path for something bigger. Probably so, so they’re just staying out of her way.”
Dorchester’s Alda Witherspoon chats with at-large candidate Frank Baker during his election night party at Florian Hall. Seth Daniel photo
