GOV. CHARLIE BAKER demonstrated his skill at biting his tongue on Wednesday.
At a State House press conference, Baker found a way to disagree in a fairly agreeable way with recent decisions by President Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
Mills recently lifted a 14-day quarantine period for travelers coming from several nearby northeast states, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut – but not Massachusetts. Maine officials gave a vague reason for the decision, and Baker vowed to press the state’s case personally with Mills.
Baker said he talked to Mills and also had Marylou Sudders, the secretary of health and human services, reach out to her counterpart in Maine.
“I said basically I’ll put my [COVID-19] data in Massachusetts up against your data any day,” Baker said.
He quickly added that the conversation with Mills was cordial, but apparently got him nowhere.
Baker was also asked about Trump’s decision to bar international students from entering the US in the fall to attend colleges and universities offering online-only courses. He also was asked about threats made by Trump to cut off federal aid to states that don’t open their K-12 schools in the fall.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
“Federal edicts like this, especially given that the facts on the ground do change quite a bit and are different everywhere, don’t make a lot of sense,” Baker said. “It’s inappropriate for the feds to think about this as one size fits all.”
Asked if some of the decisions coming out of Washington were political, Baker looked exasperated but caught himself. “I try not to speak to the intent of other people’s motivations when they make proposals and issue statements and policies,” he said. “I think both of those [decisions by Trump] were not the right way for either the higher ed systems or the K-12 systems.”
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