Baker appeals for votes in Boston’s solidly Democratic black community
Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker chats with former high school basketball rival Dwan Coleman. (Banner photo)
For Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, a chance meeting at a Roxbury cookout with Dwan Chandler sparks memories of a decades-old basketball rivalry.
Back in the early 1970s, Baker recalls, he was playing in a summer league in Dedham and Chandler was at Don Bosco in Boston.
For Chandler, it’s at best a hazy memory. Baker, though, still remembers that his team lost. And he lost again against Chandler in college.
“I also played at Harvard when you were at B.C.,” Baker recalls. “It was 85 to 83. It was a close game.”
Chandler’s eyes light up at the memory of his high school and college victories over the man who may well be the Commonwealth’s next governor. Baker, glad to make a connection at the Urban League’s Young Professional Network barbecue event, moves through the parking lot of the organization’s Warren Street building.
As the music blasts from the sound system, Baker takes a moment for an impromptu dance along with longtime friend Robert Lewis and Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts President Darnell Williams. Baker isn’t winning any Soul Train contests, just connecting with voters in a Democratic stronghold. The crowd gathered at the cookout watches with amusement. Baker has their attention, which is a lot more than most Republicans get out of Roxbury voters.
After the Urban League event Saturday, Baker was off to the NAACP Boston Branch’s Freedom Fund Reception. Sunday morning he was at the Grace Church of All Nations on Washington Street in Dorchester, where worshipers prayed for him and his wife.
In a community where GOP candidates regularly reap less than 10 percent of the vote, it’s almost assured Baker won’t win the vote here on Nov. 4. In the 2010 gubernatorial race when Baker challenged Deval Patrick, he garnered just 94 votes in Roxbury’s Ward 12 to Patrick’s 4,530 — less than 2 percent of the vote total.
But this year’s Democratic nominee, Martha Coakley, is no Deval Patrick. And Baker doesn’t need to win Boston to secure the state’s top office. He only needs to peel off some Democratic voters in the cities and hold down his Republican strongholds in the suburbs.
Traditionally, Republican candidates have been able to win votes out of the white working class neighborhoods in Boston — South Boston and the Savin Hill, Neponset and Cedar Grove sections of Dorchester. In 2010, Baker won 9 of the 19 precincts in South Boston and came away with 2,220 votes in Ward 16 (Neponset and Cedar Grove) to Patrick’s 4,482 votes there.
This time around, Baker has been working hard for votes in South Boston and Dorchester. Last week, he poured beers and his campaign paid for a round at the L Street Tavern in South Boston.
But he’s also been trawling for votes in the more solidly Democratic-voting predominantly black and Latino sections of the city. He marched in the Puerto Rican Festival Parade, the Dominican Parade and in Caribbean Carnival, and worked the crowd at each event with handshakes and one-on-one voter contact.
Baker has earned high marks from political pundits for what many see as a political makeover. Against Patrick in 2010, he often played the role of the angry white man, a ploy that may have earned him votes in the hinterlands, but likely alienated voters in communities like Roxbury.
This time around, Baker appears more at ease as he connects with voters one-on-one.
When asked how much of the vote he expected to get in the black community, Baker was blunt.
“I’m chasing 100 percent of the vote,” he said. “I want to take my message about job creation and better schools to everybody. I’ve made a point to reach out to communities of color, to the black community because I want them to know, I want to work on those issues in the community that they’re concerned about.”
Even dyed-in-the-wool Democrats acknowledge Baker has been making inroads in Boston’s black community.
“I think he’s spent a great deal of time trying to cultivate the black vote,” says Melvin Poindexter, an affirmative action officer for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and chairman of the party’s Black Caucus. “The Republicans have learned from prior elections that they need to increase their appeal in the black community.”
Poindexter says that in spite of Baker’s outreach efforts, the candidate remains solidly Republican, with his opposition to earned sick time and his insistence on cutting the state’s income tax — stances Poindexter says are at odds with the tenor in the black community.
“Baker would be a step backwards for people of color,” he said. “He’s taken some strong Republican positions that aren’t going to change.”
Baker does support the Legislature’s vote to increase the state minimum wage to $11 an hour.
One of Baker’s most vocal supporters in Boston’s black community, Robert Lewis, said Baker has been supportive of his efforts to provide better educational opportunities for black and Latino teens.
“When I call him, he shows up,” Lewis said. “He’s always been there for me.”
Lewis and Regla Gonzalez, national vice president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, have accompanied Baker to numerous community events in recent months. Political activist Hodari Cail is serving as deputy political director on the Baker campaign.
At most events, like the Urban League barbecue, Baker receives a warm reception. But so far, the endorsements from blacks have not been forthcoming.
“I support the democratic process,” Urban League President Williams said, when asked which candidate he was leaning toward.
Williams did say he appreciates Baker’s campaign activity in the black community, though.
“I don’t think black people should be beholden to one party or another,” he said. “I think they should vote in whoever supports the community.”
Baker campaign officials say they will soon hold a press conference with black Baker supporters. Lewis says many Baker supporters are hesitant to tip their hands and draw fire from die-hard Democrats in Boston’s black community.
“My hope is that by me going public, I’ll pull out more folks,” he said.
The field of black Republicans is not deep in Roxbury. In the September primary, only 21 voters cast GOP ballots for Baker. But in the Nov. 4 election, voters need not be registered as Republicans to cast a ballot for a GOP candidate. And Lewis is hoping more Ward 12 Democrats do.
“I think he’s going to be great for the Commonwealth,” Lewis said.
