Free Republic

Conservatives are always being told that we must hold our nose and vote for the Republican candidate, no matter how bad he is. We at MassResistance have consistently said that doing that simply gives them a green light to ignore conservatives completely. This should be a “teachable moment” in that regard. Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker, less than a year into office, has nominated Vickie Henry, an activist lawyer at the infamous radical LGBT legal group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, to be a judge on the State Appeals Court. If the legal system in Massachusetts isn’t already heavily...

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com / AP) - Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says he's opposed to allowing more Syrian refugees into Massachusetts in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris. The Republican said Monday the safety and security of the people of Massachusetts are his first priority and he would have to know a lot more about the federal government's refugee vetting process before allowing them into the state. "I would certainly say no until I know a lot more than I know now," Baker said. Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh echoed Baker, saying he also wants to know more about how...

HAMPTON, N.H. —GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump called Boston Mayor Marty Walsh a clown after he was called out to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Friday. Related "He's a clown, Marty Walsh," Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire Friday night. "This guy Marty Walsh. He spends all this time and effort and money on an Olympic bid, and then he goes out and he's talking about ice bucket challenges. Get a real mayor." Trump did take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, though. He also took a jab at Gov. Charlie Baker. "Gov. Baker should...

Governor Charles Baker acted prudently in pulling the plug on a scheme to relocate the state Department of Transportation from its headquarters in bustling Park Plaza to a long-vacant Roxbury lot known as Parcel 3. The half-baked plan, inherited from former Governor Deval Patrick, may have been well-intended; its goal was to revitalize a struggling neighborhood with a $350 million construction project and the influx of state employees. But the new administration concluded that the expense and upheaval couldn't be justified, especially in light of a $1.8 billion budget shortfall. Halting an unrealistic top-down proposal was a no-brainer. The real...

Here is why veteran Statehouse observers are high on Charlie Baker: No politician in modern Massachusetts history has come to the governor's office better prepared or more qualified than Charlie Baker. And it is beginning to show, not only because he has scored high in the public opinion polls -- polls are fleeting -- but because, even as a Republican in a sea of Democrats, he has had an exceptionally successful beginning. There are few governors of Massachusetts you can say that about. "I think he has gotten off to a terrific start," veteran Democrat House Speaker Robert DeLeo said....

Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration plans to ask for federal disaster assistance for the record-setting snowstorms that wreaked havoc on Massachusetts and piled up about $400 million in snow removal costs. An administration official tells The Associated Press the governor will be sending a letter to President Barack Obama by the end of this week asking for a disaster declaration for 10 Massachusetts counties. …

Signers include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie BakerMore than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday. The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide. In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage...

More than two dozen states have joined the Texas lawsuit opposing President Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, but more eye-opening is the list of Republican governors whose names still do not appear on the suit. The seven Republicans who have thus far elected not to join the suit aimed at reining in Obama are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Matthew Mead of Wyoming, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Five of those seven states – Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, Massachusetts and...

Memo to incoming Gov. Charlie Baker: Don't touch the drapes. Outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick spent $27,000 on those damask drapes in the governor's office, along with some fine furniture, when he first became governor, and he took a lot of heat over it. So leave the drapes alone. First impressions are very important. Do not repeat his initial mistakes. Also, be careful where you sit. The entire governor's suite on the third floor of the Statehouse has recently been refurbished to its historic 1798 Charles Bulfinch setting at a cost of $11.3 million.

In a Christmas Day update to his email list and Facebook followers, Governor-elect Charlie Baker touched all the right notes: gratitude to Massachusetts voters who elected him, admiration for "the ideas and the genuine commitment" he encounters in his travels across the commonwealth, sobriety regarding the gaping hole in the state budget ("the only outstanding question is how big it will be"), and optimism about the "smart, experienced, and unabashed" individuals who have agreed to join his new administration. But the most valuable part of Baker's message was his celebration of Derek Herber, a track coach at North Attleborough High School,...

Gov.-elect Charlie Baker this morning said he would nix a Patrick administration plan to issue special driver’s licenses to non-citizens to comply with new federal rules. “I don’t support issuing driver’s licenses to people who are undocumented,” he said this morning on Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” with Joe Battenfeld and Jaclyn Cashma

I’d almost forgotten to write this column. I’m sitting here watching election returns, and I am just stunned. Massachusetts? Maryland? MARYLAND?!?! Forget the Senate for a minute, or the massive Republican majority in the House, and think about the fact that Republicans did so well in the gubernatorial races across the country. In Michigan, after passing a “Right-To-Work” law, Gov. Rick Snyder wins handily. Union money and muscle plus President Obama campaigning against him couldn’t sink a man with the Twitter handle @OneToughNerd. Speaking of unions, no one had a bigger target placed on their back by the unions than...

Attorney General Martha Coakley is locked in a dead heat for governor with Republican Charlie Baker because she’s struggling to win over the two demographic groups she needs most. Partisan Democrats and women voters formed the backbone of the recent Democratic victories in Massachusetts. But three weeks before Election Day, Coakley is still struggling to close the sale with the state’s Democratic base. Democrats have established a winning formula in recent contests: Roll up big margins with women voters, turn out the party faithful and capture just enough independent voters to allow Democrats’ built-in numerical advantage to overwhelm Republicans. This...

The closest race at the moment is the one no one has been talking about. Allan Fung and Ken Block are locked in a dead heat. 2 vote diff with 6% reporting. Allan Fung (Declared) - Mayor of Cranston Ken Block (Declared) - Founder and former head of the Rhode Island Moderate Party Gina Raimondo (Declared) - State Treasurer appears to be winning the dem nomination. In NH, Scott Brown has been declared the winner with 23% reporting against 9 other candidates. Bob Smith is coming in THIRD. Frank Guinta and Melinda Garcia are taking the republican house nominations. Big...

Four years ago, when Baker was the GOP nominee, we did an assessment of Baker’s far-left, anti-family view and actions. Well, as we cruise into the Sept. 9 primary with Baker against conservative underdog Mark Fisher, it’s time for an update. Needless to say, things have only gotten worse. These days it’s very seductive for the GOP across the country to think that they can avoid confrontation with the Left by abandoning their supporters’ principles on “culture war” and “hot button” issues and instead promoting on things like “good management.” But that’s wishful thinking. (See the recent post, “The Left...

Even on the heels of November’s epic losses, the often-beleaguered Massachusetts GOP is heading into anticipated high-profile races with two power players — U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and former gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker — setting up a potential GOP standoff over who will lead the embattled party in upcoming election showdowns. “I think that Republicans are depressed with the outcome of the last election, but the good news is we have really strong candidates,” said Richard Tisei, a Wakefield Republican who shared the ticket with Baker in the last gubernatorial election and narrowly lost against U.S. Rep. John Tierney this...

Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, touts his conservative credentials while in his home state. But he's been actively steering millions of dollars in Massachusetts to elect the most pro-homosexual, anti-family Republican governor and lieutenant governor candidates in America. Barbour leads the Republican Governor's Association (RGA), an independent political organization based in Washington. Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei represent the new uber-RINO left-wing country-club wave of the Massachusetts Republican Party. From a fiscal standpoint, Baker was Gov. Bill Weld's budget chief during the expansion of the "Big Dig" -- the most expensive public works project in history. Need we...

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column

With just five weeks to the election, Republican Charles D. Baker has pulled even with Governor Deval Patrick in a gubernatorial race shaped by anti-incumbent sentiment and unusually high excitement among Republican voters, according to a new Boston Globe poll. The poll results also suggest that independent Timothy P. Cahill is pulling voters equally from Baker and Patrick, raising questions about the conventional political thinking that his candidacy is undercutting Baker’s chance to defeat the governor in the Nov. 2 election. In the Globe poll, taken last week, Patrick, a Democrat, won support from 35 percent of likely voters, compared...

Charlie Baker gets very upset when asked if he's a "social conservative."