BEVERLY — Republican Charlie Baker said he started getting a "rock star-type response" from some voters long before a new poll released over the weekend showed the race for governor in a statistical dead heat.
"Since about July Fourth, I've felt better and better about our chances every week, just based on the bounce we get from the people we see out there on the street," Baker said during a freewheeling meeting yesterday with editors of The Salem News, sister paper of the Gloucester Daily Times.
The Swampscott resident and former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health attacked Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick's job performance and pledged to lower taxes but appeared stumped on other questions, including whether he supported Proposition 21/2 overrides while serving as a town selectman.
Baker entered the race, he said, to change the Beacon Hill culture and create a climate for growth. He repeatedly pledged to cut taxes and to ease red tape for small businesses, which he said is ruining their potential for growth.
Though he opposes Question 3, which would roll back the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, he calls himself "a five, five and five guy." He wants the sales tax, income tax and businesses taxes reduced to 5 percent.
"If you believe like our governor does that things are good, you should vote for him," Baker said. "But I think we can do a lot better."
If elected, Baker would immediately institute a hiring freeze and a wage freeze and create a set of rules to ensure state benefits don't go to illegal immigrants, he said. He would also empower local police departments to access a federal immigration database to determine whether criminal suspects are in the country illegally.
Baker has previously pledged to cut 5,000 state jobs. When asked, he did not cite exactly how or where those jobs would be trimmed, but he said the administrative structure of state government is inefficient and antiquated, with agencies rarely communicating with each other.
"I believe state government needs to play by the same rules as everyone else," Baker said. "One of those is live within your means and make sure you're doing everything you possibly can in the most effective and efficient way possible."
During his three-year term as Swampscott selectman, Baker voted to place almost a dozen override questions on the ballot to let voters decide which services, if any, they favored. But when asked whether he personally voted fo r any of the overrides at the polls, he blanked.
"I don't remember," Baker said.
Baker also could not recall which way he voted on an override ballot question in January to build a new police station, even though he told The Salem News on election night that he voted for it. At the time, he said he felt the station could be built without raising taxes because another Swampscott debt would be simultaneously discharged.
As a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, Baker was asked about working with Democrats and specifically who he'd been able to work with successfully in the past.
After an 11-second pause, he could not name anyone.
"I'd say it depends on the issue and the topic," Baker said. "My mother's a Democrat. My father's a Republican. I speak both languages. I've never had trouble working with folks on both sides."
Baker blasted Patrick for failing to push for plan design — a proposal that would allow municipal leaders to unilaterally change union health plans.
"I would have created a campaign for it," Baker said. "I would have done a press conference with the mayors of Peabody and Salem and city council members and anyone else that wanted to come. ... I thought the governor's position on this was incredibly weak. ... That's not leadership."
Baker also said he supports Republican Bill Hudak's candidacy for Congress, though it took a lengthy line of questioning to draw it out of him.
Is he supporting Hudak's campaign?
"I certainly support the Republican ticket," Baker said. "... I hope Mary Connaughton wins. I hope Karyn Polito wins. I hope Bill Campbell wins. I hope Brett Schetzsle wins."
Does he hope Hudak wins?
"I'm supporting the ticket," Baker said.
Is he supporting Hudak?
"Yup."
Is that an endorsement?
"I'm supporting the ticket," Baker said.
As for independent Tim Cahill, whose support, at least in the latest poll, seems to be slipping, Baker said he didn't know whether the state treasurer was drawing votes away from him.
"What I do know is I'm taking more votes away from (Patrick and Cahill) now than I was six months ago," Baker said. "And I think that's a function of our message and our campaign."
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