Get Your Vote On! MALC’s Analysis of Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker’s Campaign/Policy Platforms
As part of MALC’s Get Your Vote On! blog series, we are taking the time to look closely at the campaign platforms of four of the five candidates running for governor*. (MALC did not reach out to the Lively/Saunders Campaign.)
Members of the MALC Steering Committee met with these four candidates for Governor earlier this year and shared our policy vision** for our sector with them. We urge everyone in our community to take the time to become familiar with the candidates’ platforms, then vote in the November 4th General elections.
Your vote really matters on this very tight governor’s race!
(To find out where to vote: http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.aspx)
Today we’re analyzing Candidate Charlie Baker’s arts policy platform:
Candidate info:
Charlie Baker (Republican)
Campaign Website: https://www.charliebaker2014.com/
Candidate Baker’s guest blog for MALC: At the time of this post, MALC had not received a guest blog by Candidate Baker. We will post it if one is submitted.
Running Mate: Lt. Governor Candidate Karyn Polito (Republican)
Answered Lt. Governor questionnaire (PDF): http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/Polito.pdf
Link to campaign website: https://www.karynpolitoforlg.com/
1. Does the candidate have a specific policy/issues platform for our sector?
No. At the time of this post, Candidate Baker had not released an arts & culture policy.
2. Does the candidate specifically mention our sector in any of their other policy platforms?
No. Candidate Baker establishes five policy areas on his website, but does not specifically mention our sector within them.
3. Analyze the candidate’s other platforms and their “news/press/update” sections of their website to assess how their policies may impact and/or could be leveraged to impact our sector:
Most of Candidate Bakers’s platforms are worth noting. He has established comprehensive and detailed policy initiatives within which the needs of our sector could (and should) be integrated and productively promoted. If elected, we hope a Baker administration would indeed embrace, integrate, and support our sector. The following items are welcome but should be expanded to address the needs of artists of all disciplines, the arts/cultural community and the creative economy as noted below. (MALC comments in green):
Excerpt from the Economic Growth And Jobs platform’s “Great Again Massachusetts” policy paper:
Massachusetts has rightly earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading centers for entrepreneurs, chiefly because of world-class research universities and hospitals and a well-established investment sector. At the same time, our position is a precarious one, threatened by the emergence of competitive innovation hubs in other states and countries. Due to the high cost of doing business here, new companies tend to look elsewhere when it’s time to decide where to locate large-scale manufacturing, service or distribution operations.
Maintaining our state as a global leader in the 21st Century is a commendable goal. As MALC made clear in its Challenge for the Next Governor, this would require directives such as preserving and enhancing the film tax credit program, supporting the Creative Economy Council’s work, and fully supporting the state’s Cultural District programs, our library system, Mass Humanities, and the expansion of access to high speed internet, among other priorities listed in our Challenge. Other key areas include ensuring adequate protection for those who create intellectual property by encouraging revision of our state’s independent contractor law and strengthening IP rights for adjunct professors. Our economy benefits enormously from the creative sector. Maintaining and building structures for its continued growth can only facilitate a positive return on investment.
Excerpt from the A Great School For Every Child platform:
We can have great schools across the Commonwealth that ensure opportunity for every single child, no matter where they live.
We can and should replicate the innovative solutions developed in successful schools across the state to close the achievement gap and deepen the connections between schools and employers. As Governor, Charlie will work to build on the state’s successful intervention in Lawrence by creating an Excellence School District to enable and encourage dramatic improvements in the state’s lowest performing schools and districts.
Education is of paramount importance. It must include support for STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) in all state education programs and initiatives. Furthermore, increased support for our teaching artists is vital. The arts are a key asset for developing minds and every child in our state should have access to the benefits they provide.
Excerpt from the Safer, Stronger Communities platform:
Massachusetts cities, especially our gateway cities, have been unable to realize their full potential because of a lack of focused vision from one-party rule on Beacon Hill. Our cities deserve a bipartisan state government that will guarantee every child access to a high quality education, every resident a safe neighborhood to call home, and a commitment to developing our urban centers to create good jobs.
Focusing on Gateway Cities is of tremendous importance. We would like to see a commitment to ensuring all Gateway Cities initiatives fully integrate artists, arts and culture, and the creative economy through the development of arts and crafts live/work cooperatives, full support for the cultural district program, and youth training initiatives. We believe the Gateway Cities’ focus on transformative development must include cultural entrepreneurs at the policy table.
Excerpt from the A Health Care System That Works platform:
The rising cost of health care is taking more and more money out of workers’ paychecks. One of the key ways we can start working on bringing down the cost of health care is to increase transparency around how much medical care actually costs and the wide disparities in costs and outcomes between different hospitals and providers. Price and performance matters and it should be publicly available information.
Health care is of great concern to workers throughout our state, and this is especially true for artists. Many work both wage and contract jobs and, as a result, fall through the cracks for access to health care. What is needed is an occupational wellness program for artists of all disciplines. State agencies that must be involved in such a program are the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Executive Office of Public Health and Human Services, Department of Public Health, MassHealth, and the Massachusetts Health Connector Authority. We would like to see these specific needs acknowledged and addresses in any health care legislation.
Sources: https://charliebaker2014.com/
*MALC invited four of the five candidates for Governor to guest blog and the candidates will be featured in reverse alphabetical order:
Tuesday, October 28th Candidate Jeff McCormick
Wednesday, Oct. 29th Candidate Evan Falchuk
Thursday, October 30th Candidate Martha Coakley
Friday, October 31st Candidate Charlie Baker
We are using the following format and questions for all the posts analyzing their policy platforms:
List the Candidate’s name, party affiliation (if any), link to their campaign website, link to their guest blog (if they sent one), list their Lt. Governor’s website and their MALC answered Lt. Governor’s questionnaire.
- Does the candidate have a specific policy/issues platform for our sector?
- Does the candidate specifically mention our sector in any of their other policy platforms?
- Analyze the candidate’s other platforms and their “news/press/update” sections of their website to assess how their policies may impact and/or could be leveraged to impact our sector.
**MALC’s full policy platform:
MALC’s Policy Summary:
MALC believes that a serious arts, culture, and creative economy policy must be fully integrated throughout all of the Commonwealth’s policies, programs and initiatives and should also foster cross departmental and agency cooperation. MALC recommends that the next governor’s chief policy adviser be tasked with integration of these policies and that the next governor and their administration address the following four key areas:
1: Artists’ Rights, Artist Retention, and Ensuring the Commonwealth’s Artists Thrive
MALC strongly recommends a commitment to fair trade standards and equitable dealing for artists of all disciplines, along with all those who create intellectual property. This dealing should encompass artists’ work arrangements, fair trade practices, living conditions, tax liability, representation on government boards and agencies, and health and wellness promotion/disaster mitigation.
2: Support and Fund Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy
MALC strongly recommends a commitment to increasing/stabilizing funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cultural Facilities fund, the Cultural Districts program, the Creative Economy Council, the Gateway Cities initiative, the state library system, and Mass Humanities. MALC would also like the next governor to focus on growing the creative economy, including the film and video game sectors.
3: Support and Fund Arts Education on All Levels and For All Ages
MALC strongly recommends a commitment to moving from STEM to STEAM in all state education programs and initiatives, and to increase and/or continue funding for the arts in schools, the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, arts education communities, community centers, libraries, and elder centers. MALC would also like the governor to support teaching artists as well as and the integration, inclusion, and access of the arts for all residents.
4: Establish New and Needed Programs and Initiatives
MALC strongly recommends a commitment to funding a state poet laureate position, implementing the percent for public art and cultural diplomacy programs, rebranding the Commonwealth, and launching a “Created in Massachusetts” campaign.
***Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Math
MALC does not endorse candidates for office, but seeks to provide needed and timely information about candidates’ platforms and policies that impact artists of all disciplines, the art, and cultural and creative economies. Nor does MALC take positions on the statewide ballot questions.