From Baker to Ballot: Republican Mike Kennealy makes his pitch for governor

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19-05-2025

Good Monday morning, everyone.
Mike Kennealy isn't the only Republican looking to challenge Democratic Gov. Maura Healey in 2026. But the former Baker administration official nonetheless has the distinction of being the first GOP hopeful to throw his hat in the ring.
The Lexington resident, who served as former Gov. Charlie Baker's housing and economic development secretary, jumped into the race in April with the seemingly statutorily required introductory video on YouTube.
In the two-minute video, Kennealy ticks off a laundry list of problems facing the state, including the cost of housing, a 'broken' transportation system and the 'unspeakable violence' in the state's emergency shelter system that 'is a human tragedy and a national embarrassment.'
Kennealy shortly found himself doing battle with the state Democratic Party, which called on the state's campaign finance watchdog to investigate contributions to Kennealy's campaign that exceeded the state's individual donation limit.
The race for the GOP nomination in 2026 also has since become a kind of Baker-Off, with the entrance of Brian Shortsleeve, who ran the MBTA for the former Republican governor.
Kennealy took a few minutes to talk with MassLive last week about his candidacy, his goals, and what he's reading. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and content.
Q: Why are you running? And why now? What was the 'eureka' moment when you knew you had to do it?
Kennealy: 'I love Massachusetts, and I love public service, and I'm looking at our state right now, and I see a number of different opportunities and challenges. The three parts of our campaign are focused on affordability, opportunity and better government. I think that's an important time in Massachusetts on all those three areas, and I think I have the skills and the background to really address those challenges and address those opportunities.'
I think Gov. Healey has not addressed those adequately. I think it's clear we need to change in leadership in the corner office, I describe the Healey administration as characterized by absence and arrogance. It's an administration that's not bringing the kind of level of energy and focus and passion to the work and not doing the work in a collaborative enough manner. I think there's a real 'We know better' attitude coming out of the corner office on Beacon Hill today."
'My leadership style, my leadership approach, is much, much different. I can speak to my 19 years in private equity, but perhaps most important for this conversation, 12 years in full-time public service to the commonwealth ... And so I know over the course of my career, of my experience in business and education, the nonprofit sector, state government, work in local government here in Lexington, I think I've got the right skills and the right background to lead the state forward.'
Q: So what was the moment where this kind of dawned on you, where you kind of looked up and were like, 'All right, this is the thing I've got to do?'
A: 'I guess I can point to a couple of eureka moments over the course of my career, one of which is over a dozen years ago. I decided I want to leave that private equity career behind and really spend the rest of my professional days working in public service for the people of Massachusetts.'
'So that goes back to 2012, realizing that's what I wanted to do, and spending some time to figure out the right opportunity ... And look, I mean, I got to see the job of governor up close. When you're one of nine cabinet secretaries ... And you're in the room and you're working on things with him, and seeing the job up close, I realize it's it is an amazing opportunity to serve the people. And, so clearly, that role is on my mind as a cabinet secretary.'
'And then for me, it was a question of, you know, is there an opportunity? Is there a right time to do it? And as I've had a chance to observe the Healey administration the last couple [of] years and seeing the issues and opportunities in front of the state, I realized, yeah, but we're gonna go for it.'
Q: How does a Republican Gov. Kennealy work to build bridges with a pretty progressive Democratic Legislature?
A: 'I think leaders [have] got to do a couple [of] things. One is, you have to manage well the activities within your portfolio.'
'So, for me, I looked at the job of governor the way I tried to approach a job as secretary: Job one is managing the government well. And frankly, I did that as a cabinet secretary and worked with many talented CEOs in my business career.'
'I was part of a leadership team [in the] Lawrence [school district] that drove a lot of change over a couple years, I worked in as part of a leadership team or a great nonprofit the last couple of years. So I've seen up close what it means to be a leader and a manager. And I've done that work. You know, being a cabinet secretary effectively means you're CEO of, in my case, of a billion-and-a-half dollar a year company.'
'And so learning how to manage that well, the other thing a leader has to do is communicate relentlessly and just be accessible, be transparent, communicate to the public what you're doing, why you're doing it. That's how I [approached] my job as secretary. That's how I'll try to approach the job as governor.'
'So step one, manage the government well. Step two ... communicate relentlessly to people. And part of that too, what I'll call step three, you know, being willing and having the desire to collaborate and get things done. That's what I'll try to do as governor.'
Q: In your introductory video, you've dinged Gov. Healey on affordability, which admittedly is the biggest issue facing the state right now. You were Gov. Baker's housing and economic development secretary. There's an argument to be made that you had a shot to address it while you were there, but didn't. How do you defend that record? And what are you going to do, going forward, to address those affordability issues?
A: 'We had a big shot to address [it], and we did. We got passed the single most important zoning reform in 50 years in Massachusetts. And that's called housing choice. And it took us three years to get it done. And we looked at local zoning as an impediment to housing production, and it was our view that we're in a housing crisis in Massachusetts. We have to produce a lot more housing. But you've got to do it in partnership with cities and towns. You cannot mandate to them what to do. You've got to work with them.'
" ... And so that was a big shot. And we did a number of other things too. But that was a big shot. And we took it and we got it done. And I think over time, it's going to have a generational impact on housing production."
Q: Talking of the MBTA, your former colleague, Brian Shortsleeve, who's in the race now, ran the MBTA under Gov. Baker. So I'll leave him to speak to his record at the MBTA. But my understanding of the Baker administration is that it wasn't so much a matter of trying to improve the T, as it was simply trying to stop the bleed. Would you agree with that?
A: 'I think the T ... remains the unfinished business of the Baker administration. It's probably not the strongest part of our track record, to say the least.'
'If people look at what went wrong during the Baker administration, then you have to point to the T ... In contrast, I think the current general manager [Phil Eng] is doing a really good job. It's a tough job, for sure. But in terms of closing the funding shortfall [Around $700 million, Editor's note.], I think you need to be realistic on where the funds come from."
'My understanding is that they want to tap the so-called 'Millionaire's Tax' to fund the T's shortfall. I think it was a terrible outcome for us to pass that ... tax. I was against it. I think it's going to be an enormous competitive disadvantage for us.'
Q: Would you push for the modification or repeal of the state's right-to-shelter law?
A: 'We have got to amend the right to shelter law. Okay, this was passed in 1983. And I would argue, from 1983 to late 2022 or early 2023, nobody was particularly concerned about it. It did its job, which is to house Massachusetts families that have become homeless. And it was not meant to address a humanitarian crisis on the scale that is being asked to address ... now.'
'So we have to get back to the original intent of the law, which is to house Massachusetts families that have become homeless.'
Q: You've said you don't want to make this race about President [Donald] Trump. You want to make it about your candidacy. Inevitably, that's going to hang over any midterm contest. How do you step out from behind that fairly long shadow and convince unenrolled voters that you are not going to sort of replicate Washington policies here?
A: 'I'm going to continue my tradition of kindly rejecting the premise of any question of this regard. I'm not stepping out of a shadow. I'm trying to lead, okay? And we're trying to articulate a vision and agenda for Massachusetts, right?
'And that's what this is about, okay? This is about listening to the people of Massachusetts, their needs, their aspirations, their opportunities, and developing policies and strategies to address them — like period, full stop. That's what this is about. And there's an enormous number of things that the governor can and should do to move that agenda forward. That's where my focus is."
Here's your regularly scheduled reminder to always read the fine print.
In 1946, the folks at Harvard Law School bought what they believed was a reproduction of The Magna Carta, the 13th-century document that provided the basis for modern law.
Turns out, it might be the real thing, according to two medieval history professors from the United Kingdom, who have concluded that it's a rare and lost version of the document, dating to 1300 during the reign of King Edward I.
And to say that its value has appreciated is something of an understatement.
'This is a fantastic discovery,' David Carpenter from King's College London, told the BBC. He began analyzing it after seeing digitized images of it on the Harvard website.
'It is the last Magna Carta... [and it] deserves celebration, not as some mere copy, stained and faded, but as an original of one of the most significant documents in world constitutional history; a cornerstone of freedoms past, present and yet to be won,' Carpenter told the BBC.
So, how rare is it? Just 24 of the originals from editions issued between 1215 and 1300 remain. Most of them are in the U.K. The National Archives in Washington, D.C., houses two copies, while one is in Parliament House in Australia's capital city of Canberra, the BBC reported.
Amanda Watson, Harvard Law School's assistant dean for library services, congratulated the two British scholars for their detective work
'Behind every scholarly revelation stands the essential work of librarians, who not only collect and preserve materials but create pathways that otherwise would remain hidden,' she said, according to the BBC.
Nearly five months into the new legislative session, Democrats who control the state House and Senate still haven't agreed on the joint rules that smooth the flow of legislation between both sides of Beacon Hill.
Negotiators met — briefly — for the first time in two months, and tensions between the two chambers were rapidly on display, according to State House News Service.
In case you think this is an intellectual exercise, the lack of joint rules prevented state Sen. Jacob Oliviera, D-Hampden/Hampshire/Worcester, from testifying remotely on his own bills last week before a joint House and Senate committee.
Thursday's session was open to the public — a rarity on Beacon Hill. Speaking to reporters afterward, the lead negotiators, Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem, D-Norfolk/Middlesex, and House Majority Leader John Moran, D-18th Sussex, put some meat on the bone of the two chambers' disagreements.
'To me, what I think is important are the matters of transparency, and we can't agree on them,' Creem told reporters while standing next to Moran. 'How much notice do we give out on a conference committee [report]? How much time do we [allow] for ending the session? When do these things happen? These were important things that I think my constituents wanted.'
Alluding to the pile-up over Oliviera, Moran noted that 'the theatrics of that hearing were pretty interesting. And I think it does touch on one of the areas that we're having a little challenge with. And I don't think it's any secret that the House has a couple of things that they'd like to see, one of them being no remote participation.'
It wasn't clear last week when the committee might meet again. But it is likely to be open to the public.
Okay, so it's really 'Monday Number' this week, but trust us, it's a doozy.
Jim Davis, the billionaire founder of New Balance, pumped $1 million last month into a super-PAC supporting the fortunes of Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft, according to Commonwealth Beacon, which cited campaign filings.
Other big donors, including Robert Hale, the CEO of Granite Telecommunications in Quincy ($100,000), Quincy construction executive John J. Calnan ($150,000), also donated to the pro-Kraft super PAC, which is less accountable under law for how it spends and uses those donations, the online news org reported.
But it is barred from directly coordinating with Kraft's campaign.
Kraft's campaign had $151,661 on hand, according to the most recent state data, after raising $832,488 and spending $703,920.
Incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, who, like Kraft, is a Democrat, was sitting on $2.2 million, the most recent state campaign finance data showed. Wu has so far raised $886,570 and spent $405,755 on her reelection campaign, the same data show.
'It's easy to stand on the sidelines if you're new to the city, new to any city policy-making, to say, 'Just cut, cut, cut,' and not have to say from where.'
— Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has a go at rival Democratic candidate Josh Kraft during the first public forum of the 2025 campaign for City Hall last week.
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So there are annual meetings, and then there's this one.
The Worcester Natural History Society (that's the EcoTarium Museum of Science and Nature to you and me) holds its 200th annual meeting at 4:30 p.m. on June 10 in Mechanics Hall at 321 Main Street in the city.
Yep, its 200th annual meeting. And you'd better believe we had to read the press release twice to make sure we had the number right.
A pre-meeting reception gets rolling at 4:30 p.m., with the meeting proper kicking off at 5 p.m. And because you only get one chance to turn 200, the reception picks back up again at 6:30 p.m. There's a cash bar and live entertainment. So bring both your wallet and your dancing shoes.
Singer-songwriter Hamilton Leithauser, best known for his time as the frontman for indie legends The Walkmen, brings his solo tour to The Sinclair Music Hall in Cambridge for a show on Tuesday (Tickets and info here).
His most recent solo record, 'This Side of the Island‚' dropped earlier this year. If you're unfamiliar with his work, here's a primer to get you up to speed.
ESPN will soon be a whole lot less shouty. And we'll leave you to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. But the one definite thing is that the cable network is pulling the plug on 'Around the Horn' this week, with its last episode airing Friday.
Sports news website Awful Announcing delved into the reasons for canceling the show, which has been on the air since 2002. The show had been suffering a ratings slide — particularly compared to its sibling 'Pardon the Interruption,' Drew Lerner reported for the site.
Here's the germane bit:
'After compiling viewership data for both shows in March and April, it became apparent that Pardon the Interruption was not only the more popular show, but by a lot.'
'When looking at first-run airings of both Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption during March and April this year, PTI averaged over 200,000 more viewers than Around the Horn. Over the measured period, Around the Horn averaged 362,000 viewers per telecast, while Pardon the Interruption averaged 574,400 viewers.'
'In other words, Pardon the Interruption increased Around the Horn's audience by an average of 59% during its half-hour window. That type of jump is very rare for two studio shows airing back-to-back in the same hour.'
Now what're we all gonna watch on the treadmill after work?
That's it for today. As always, tips, comments and questions can be sent to [e-mail]. Concerns about PTI can be sent to [e-mail]. Have a good week, friends.
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