Quincy's Democratic Mayor giving Republican Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker a tour of the city and saying glowing things about his ability to lead is a vision that Massachusetts Democrats will cringe at.
"He's very helpful, insightful, he has a lot of talent. I like what he has to say about local aid and all," said Mayor Thomas Koch.
Baker says meeting with Democrats, Mayor Koch supported Steve Grossman in the primary, is something he's been doing for the past year.
"We've been pretty committed and pretty aggressive about spending a lot of time in a lot of communities in a lot of neighborhoods that I would not call republican strong holds," said Baker.
Along the way Baker has also picked up the support of John Barrett, the long time democratic former Mayor of Martha Coakley's hometown North Adams, who is encharged with helping Baker pick up the support of Mayor's around the state.
"I think Martha Coakley just doesn't understand it. She hasn't been a very active AG in the sense that she doesn't know the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, even though she's from my home city. She doesn't understand the needs," said Barrett.
Coakley was campaigning in Charlestown with Congressman Michael Capuano who made news days before the primary when he said he thought Charlie Baker would be a good Governor.
Endorsing Coakley, Capuano clarified his remark.
"I don't have anything bad to say about him. That doesn't mean I agree with him on policy and philosophy. It means I agree with Martha Coakley on policy and philosophy more often than not," said Capuano.
But Capuano isn't the only prominent democrat to be saying nice things about Baker.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, had this answer when asked by Jim Braude on WGBH radio what he thought of Charlie Baker: "I like Charlie. Charlie's actually a good man. I worked with him indirectly at the state house he was there. Would he be a good Governor. He would be a good Governor. They have two different styles."
Walsh would not answer who he voted for for Governor and when asked several times if he was going to support Coakley, Walsh repeatedly said he would support the Democratic ticket finally saying, "I know I'm dancing on this issue. I'm going to be supporting Martha Coakley for Governor."
Coakley says she met earlier in the day with her two democratic opponents, Steve Grossman and Don Berwick and their teams and seems confident that she will have the vast support of democrats, regardless of who they supported in the primary.
"We're going to disagree. We have a healthy debate in our party about where we should be going and how we should get there, but I think we all have the same vision," said Coakley.
