Charlie Baker on Government Reform

	Charlie Baker on Government Reform

Declined to sign "People's Pledge" against outside PAC ads

Both made efforts to fire up their bases with red meat comments on wedge issues like illegal immigration and campaign finance reform. Coakley scolded Baker for not signing a campaign gimmick that blocks third party spending in campaigns known as the "People's Pledge" while pressing him on supporting a constitutional amendment that would reform campaign finance laws. Baker responded by saying that he'd like to see reforms, but the constitutional amendment process is far too slow. Source: MassLive.com on 2014 Massachusetts Gubernatorial debate , Oct 29, 2014

More campaign finance disclosure but remove union exemptions

Baker generally backs a pending campaign finance reform bill to enhance Super PAC donor disclosure and boost donation limits to candidates but faults its failure to end an existing carve-out that permits higher donations by unions. Republican Charlie Baker said he was generally supportive of the measure, but criticized what he called a special exemption for Democratic-leaning labor unions. The bill would require super political action committees to report their donors within seven days of their expenditures. As primary and general election votes approach, those windows would close to every 24 hours.

Of all the candidates for governor, Baker was most critical of the bill. Baker targeted a "carveout" in the legislation for organizations, such as labor unions, that would leave untouched state campaign finance rules that permit them to give candidates up to $15,000.(Boston Globe, 7/1/2014)

Source: Mass IEPAC: Research Profile on Charlie Baker, p.250 , Sep 1, 2014

Supports open meeting law: make legislative debate public

Candidates for governor said they will push for more transparency on Beacon Hill, but only one called for lawmakers to adopt some form of the Open Meeting Law. Baker said: "I certainly think the process needs improvement. This is probably the single biggest and most important legislation that moves through the session. We ought to come up with a legislative calendar that doesn't make the Legislature think it has to eliminate a lot of the debate that should be public.'" (Boston Herald, 5/8/2014) Source: Mass IEPAC: Research Profile on Charlie Baker, p.170 , Sep 1, 2014

$500 donor limit is crazy; it's suppression of free speech

At a Republican forum in Braintree in early April, Baker critiqued rules such as the inability to launch an exploratory committee and donation limits as strictures that benefit incumbents. "We have a $500 limit. Five hundred dollars, you know, in this day and age, I'm sorry, is crazy," Baker said. "I mean the federal limit is $2,500 in the primary; $2,500 in the general. A number of other states, people have gone to court to say that this is a suppression of free speech. They've won. I think Massachusetts probably ought to move. What do you think about having a ballot question that deals with some of these silly incumbent protection rules?" Source: State House News Service on 2014 Massachusetts Governor race , Dec 3, 2013

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*Other governors on Government Reform:*		*Charlie Baker on other issues:*
*MA Gubernatorial:* Bill Weld Bob Massie Dan Wolf Deval Patrick Don Berwick Jay Gonzalez Karyn Polito Lawrence Lessig Martha Coakley Marty Walsh Richard Tisei Steve Grossman Tom Menino Warren Tolman *MA Senatorial:* Allen Waters Beth Lindstrom Brian Herr Bruce Skarin Ed Markey Elizabeth Warren Gabriel Gomez Geoff Diehl Heidi Wellman John Kingston Martha Coakley Shiva Ayyadurai *Gubernatorial Debates 2018:* AK: Walker(i) vs.Chenault(R) vs.~~Huggins~~(R) vs.Begich(D) vs.Treadwell(D) AL: Kay Ivey(R) vs.Countryman(D) vs.Tommy Battle (R) vs.Walt Maddox (R) vs.~~George~~(R) vs.~~Carrington~~(R) AR: Hutchinson(R) vs.Henderson(D) vs.West(L) AZ: Ducey(R) vs.David Garcia (D) vs.Farley(D) CA: Newsom(D) vs.Chiang(D) vs.Villaraigosa(D) vs.Delaine Eastin (D) vs.David Hadley (R) vs.John Cox (R) vs.Zoltan Istvan (I) vs.Allen(R) vs.La Riva(P) CO: Johnston(D) vs.Mitchell(R) vs.Cary Kennedy (D) vs.Doug Robinson (R) vs.Barlock(R) vs.Lynne(R) vs.Polis(D) vs.Coffman(R) vs.~~George Brauchler~~(R,A.G.) vs.Stapleton(R) CT: Malloy(D) vs.Lamont(D) vs.Srinivasan(R) vs.David Walker (R) vs.Lumaj(R) vs.Visconti(R) vs.Lauretti(R) vs.~~Drew~~(D) FL: Gillum(D) vs.Graham(D) vs.Putnam(R) GA: Kemp(R) vs.Cagle(R) vs.Hill(R) vs.Abrams(D) vs.Levine(D) HI: Ige(D) vs.Hanabusa(D) vs.Carroll(R) IA: Kim_Reynolds(R) vs.Leopold(D) vs.Boulton(D) vs.McGuire(D) vs.Glasson(D) vs.Hubbell(D) ID: Little(R) vs.Fulcher(R) vs.Labrador(R) vs.Ahlquist(R) vs.Minton(D) vs.Jordan(D) IL: Rauner(R) vs.Kennedy(D) vs.Pawar(D) vs.Daniel Biss (D) vs.Pritzker(D) vs.Ives(R) KS: Brewer(D) vs.Wink Hartman (R) vs.Colyer(C) vs.Kobach(R) vs.Orman(O) MA: Baker(R) vs.Gonzalez(D) vs.Setti Warren (D) vs.Bob Massie (R) MD: Hogan(R) vs.Alec Ross (D) vs.Cummings(D) vs.Madaleno(D) vs.Jealous(D) ME: Mayhew(R) vs.Mills(D) vs.Boyle(D) vs.Thibodeau(R) vs.Moody(D) MI: Whitmer(R) vs.El-Sayed(D) vs.Tim Walz (D) vs.Schuette(R) vs.Calley(R) MN: vs.Smith(D) vs.Coleman(D) vs.Murphy(D) vs.Otto(D) vs.Tina Liebling (DFL) vs.Tim Walz (DFL) vs.Matt Dean (R) vs.Pawlenty(R) vs.Johnson(R) NE: Ricketts(R) vs.Krist(D) NH: Sununu(R) vs.Schwartz(R) vs.Steve Marchand (D) NM: Lujan-Grisham(D) vs.Pearce(R) vs.Cervantes(D) vs.Apodaca (D) NV: Fisher (R) vs.Sisolak(D) vs.Laxalt(R) vs.Schwartz(R) NY: Cuomo(D) vs.Nixon(D) vs.Hawkins(G) vs.Molinaro(R) OH: DeWine(R) vs.Husted(R,Lt.Gov.) vs.Kucinich(D) vs.Sutton(D,Lt.Gov) vs.Taylor(R) vs.Jim Renacci (R) vs.Connie Pillich (D) vs.Schiavoni(D) vs.Whaley(D) vs.Cordray(D) OK: Stitt(R) vs.Cornett(R) vs.Edmondson(D) vs.~~Richardson~~(R) vs.~~Johnson~~(D) OR: Brown(D) vs.Scott Inman(D) vs.Buehler(R) PA: Wolf(D) vs.Wagner(R) vs.~~Barletta~~(R) RI: Raimondo(D) vs.Fung(R) vs.Morgan(R) SC: McMaster(R) vs.McGill(R) vs.Pope(R) vs.Templeton(R) vs.Smith(D) SD: Noem(R) vs.Jackley(R) vs.Sutton(D) TN: Green(R) vs.Dean(D) vs.Black(R) TX: Abbott(R) vs.Glass(L) vs.White(D) vs.Valdez(D) VT: Scott(R) vs.Stern(D) WI: Walker(R) vs.Harlow(D) vs.Vinehout(D) vs.Evers(D) vs.Roys(D) WY: Throne(D) vs.Dahlin(R) vs.Gordon(R) vs.Rammell(R)	*Newly-elected governors (first seated in Jan. 2017):* DE-D: Carney IN-R: Holcomb MO-R: Greitens NH-R: Sununu NC-D: Cooper ND-R: Burgum VT-R: Scott WV-D: Justice *Retiring 2017-18:* AL-R: Robert Bentley(R) (term-limited 2018) CA-D: Jerry Brown (term-limited 2018) CO-D: John Hickenlooper (term-limited 2018) FL-R: Rick Scott (term-limited 2018) GA-R: Nathan Deal (term-limited 2018) IA-R: Terry Branstad (appointed ambassador, 2017) ID-R: Butch Otter (retiring 2018) KS-R: Sam Brownback (term-limited 2018) ME-R: Paul LePage (term-limited 2018) MI-R: Rick Snyder (term-limited 2018) MN-D: Mark Dayton (retiring 2018) NM-R: Susana Martinez (term-limited 2018) OH-R: John Kasich (term-limited 2018) OK-R: Mary Fallin (term-limited 2018) SC-R: Nikki Haley (appointed ambassador, 2017) SD-R: Dennis Daugaard (term-limited 2018) TN-R: Bill Haslam (term-limited 2018) WY-R: Matt Mead (term-limited 2018)	Abortion Budget/Economy Civil Rights Corporations Crime Drugs Education Energy/Oil Environment Families/Children Foreign Policy Free Trade Govt. Reform Gun Control Health Care Homeland Security Immigration Infrastructure/Technology Jobs Local Issues Principles/Values Social Security Tax Reform War/Iraq/Mideast Welfare/Poverty

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