Broadside: Catching Up With Charlie Baker

Charlie Baker, the Republican candidate for Massachusetts governor, spoke on a number of issues ranging from the political fallout in the Department of Children and Families crisis to casinos in the Bay State to Mark Fisher, a tea party Republican seeking a place on the September primary ballot.

Baker says the resignation of Massachusetts' Department of Children and Families head Olga Roche was necessary, but came too late.

"I'm sorry that ... two more children in addition to Jeremiah Oliver had to die before this decision got made, and I'm not saying that blood is on anybody's hands. I just feel that back in January it was pretty clear that the department had issues," he said.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate says he's felt the problems were "systemic," and that both the governor and the attorney general - Martha Coakley, the Democratic frontrunner in the governor's race - apparently felt otherwise, citing the state's defense of the child welfare against against a lawsuit filed by a children's rights group.

He also says if the state had performed a quick diagnostic on how the department was handling cases in different regions in Massachusetts, they could have might have recognized a pattern.

"The thing that makes me the most sad about all of this, is that you and I talked about the notion that it's not all one big agency where everything happens the same way. It's different in each region and Jeremiah Oliver - Fitchburg, Grafton, Fitchburg. I mean, all of that sort of happens out in that Worcester County area and I wish there had been more of a focus on doing that sort of region approach. Maybe, I mean, you hate to make hypotheticals, but maybe, maybe something could have been avoided here," Baker said.

Meanwhile, Mark Fisher is currently suing the Massachusetts Republican Party committee to gain a place on the September Republican primary ballot.

"I'm hoping that this court process can resolve it quickly and it will," he said.

Baker's supporters even say Fisher should be on the ballot - what does the candidate have to say?

"I think in some respects it would have been better if he'd gotten 18 percent at the convention or 10 or 12 instead of sort of right near the edge, which has created a big part of this issue, but my view all along here has been let the process play out, let's come to a fair resolution of this and I think, frankly, having it resolved by a judge is not a bad thing, and if it turns out we have a primary, I welcome it," he said.

Watch the attached video for more.

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