How Charlie Baker Thrives in Blue Massachusetts

Boston

It’s common for Bostonians to give their politicians a 59 percent approval rating—just not Republican ones. Charlie Baker, the third-year Massachusetts governor, is the exception. More than two thirds of the state’s voters give him high marks in surveys, which is itself a polling phenomenon. But Beantown skews much further left than the commonwealth’s general electorate: There are eight registered Democrats for every Republican here, while statewide it’s three-to-one. Yet “Bakah,” as the locals pronounce the name, is among the city’s most popular politicians.