Politics & Government

State GOP Puts Support Behind Charlie Baker in Gubernatorial Race

Baker was officially nominated by his party at state's republican convention this weekend.

Massachusetts Republicans officially nominated gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker in the race for governor at the state’s Republican Convention over the weekend in Boston.

Republican political consultant Charley Manning told the Boston Herald that Baker won overwhelmingly Saturday and that win frees him up to run his campaign for governor.

Baker formally announced last September he was taking another run for governor. Baker, a Swampscott resident, ran an unsuccessful bid for governor in a three-way race in 2010 with sitting Gov. Deval Patrick and Tim Cahill. Baker finished with 42 percent of the vote, compared to 48.4 percent for Patrick and 8 percent for Cahill.

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The 2014 race has a heavy field of candidates including democratic candidate and Attorney General Martha Coakley who just last week was the favorite heading into the race, according to a WBUR-FM poll.

In that poll Coakley led Baker by a 15-point margin at 41-26 percent

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The WBUR poll had state Treasurer Steven Grossman trailing Coakley by a 45-14 margin in the Democratic primary.

Seventy-five percent of people participating in that poll said they had never heard of Juliette Kayyem and Joseph Avellone, two more Democratic hopefuls.

The primary is set for Sept. 9. The general election is Nov. 4.


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