#2021-29 December 3, 2021

Baker and Polito Not Running for Re-election; 2022 Governor’s Race Field Expected to Grow

Earlier this week, Governor Charlie Baker, who remains one of the most popular governors in the country, said he will not seek a third term.  In a surprise, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, who was widely considered to be the heir to Baker’s political legacy, also announced that she will not run for governor in 2022, dramatically reshaping next fall’s Republican gubernatorial primary.

The decision by both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to step away from politics at the end of their current term means that the 2022 race will be wide open and will likely have an affect on other elected seats throughout state government.  Currently, Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston), former Senator Ben Downing (D-Pittsfield), and Harvard professor Danielle Allen have announced that they are running for the Democratic nomination, while former Representative Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman) was planning to challenge Baker in the Republican primary.  

An open seat is expected to draw more candidates on both sides of the aisle, with Attorney General Maura Healey and former Boston mayor and US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh mentioned as potential Democratic candidates.  On the Republican side, former US Attorney Andrew Lelling and Mayor of Taunton and former Representative Shauna O’Connell have also expressed interest in the race.

By deciding against another campaign, Governor Baker forgoes a chance to make history as the first governor to serve three consecutive four-year terms.  He said in his announcement that another run would become a “distraction” from the work of helping Massachusetts rebound from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and cited his desire to be there for his family after what will be eight years of the daily grind of running the state.

House and Senate Sending $4 Billion ARPA Spending Bill to Governor Baker’s Desk

On Thursday, the Massachusetts House approved a roughly $4 billion compromise spending bill on a voice vote and sent it to the Senate for approval on Friday with the goal of putting it on Governor Charlie Baker’s desk before the weekend.  The action comes less than 24 hours after a six-member conference committee filed the conference report language.

Negotiators working to resolve the differences between the House and Senate spending bills (H 4234/S 2580), both of which carried a bottom line of about $3.82 billion, announced an accord on Tuesday night and filed the 163-page legislation Wednesday evening.  As we reported previously, the legislation includes $500 million for one-time bonus payments for lower-income essential workers who stayed on the job in-person during the state of emergency.  It also deposits $500 million into the unemployment insurance trust fund to relieve pressure on businesses who fund the system and were forced to absorb additional costs due to the significant job losses during the pandemic.  

The final bill also contains more than $500 million for housing initiatives, $400 million to expand access to mental and behavioral health supports and community-based primary care, $300 million for Medicaid home services, $260 million to support financially strained hospitals in areas particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and $200 million for local and regional public health systems.

The conference committee added approximately $180 million over the base House and Senate versions, which uses all of the state’s remaining fiscal 2021 tax surplus.  The legislature is leaving around $2.25 billion in ARPA funds to be spent at a later date.

Democrat Wins Essex County Legislative Seat in Special Election

On Tuesday, Democrats flipped a legislative seat in Essex County long held by Republicans as Topsfield’s Jamie Belsito defeated Rowley Republican Robert Snow in a low-turnout special election.  A women’s health advocate, Belsito will fill the seat held for more than two decades by Ipswich Republican Brad Hill.  Hill resigned from the House to join the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

The final unofficial tally across the six-town Fourth Essex District was 2,504 to 2,016, according to published reports.