Gov.-elect Healey, outgoing Gov. Baker start planning transition

Maura Healey started her first day as governor-elect thinking about her current job.

"I'm still the attorney general, so my job is to — I was dealing with legal matters this morning, and that work will continue for the indefinite future, but it's certainly been an exciting, exciting 24 hours," Healey. "I did call my mom this morning. That's one thing I did."

By afternoon, though, she and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll were at the State House, meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to talk about the transition from one administration to the next. Both the outgoing Republican governor and the incoming Democrat described their intentions for a smooth, collaborative process.

Baker, who took office amid the record-breaking snowfalls of January 2015, said he’ll invite Healey and Driscoll to join in his administration’s upcoming winter weather preparation. He said he’ll also prioritize briefings on disaster preparedness efforts and the development of next year’s state budget, which Healey is due to file in March.

“I will be sad leaving this job,” Baker said. “I won’t be sad for the commonwealth, but I will be sad personally, because you get a look into — you get a front-row seat to the people of Massachusetts who treat you with a profound amount of familiarity because they see you on the news and on TV and all the rest, and I will really miss the opportunity to talk to people about their hopes and their dreams and their problems and what we can do to fix them.”

He said one key piece of advice he and Polito passed on to their successors is “to get out of the building and spend time with the people of Massachusetts.”

Driscoll, the current mayor of Salem, will lead the transition team for the new administration, and Baker aides Tim Buckley and Elizabeth Mahoney will lead efforts on behalf of the current one. Driscoll said the transition team has launched a website and will soon begin forming policy committees.

Healey, as attorney general, and Driscoll, as a local official, come to their new positions with already-established relationships with the Baker administration and many other parts of state government. Healey’s win flips the corner office from red to blue, but their joint appearance Wednesday had a focus on partnership and mutual well-wishes rather than any air of bitter partisanship.

Polito noted the historic nature of the Healey-Driscoll ticket, which, along with the winners of yesterday’s Arkansas election, will become the first two-women executive teams in the country.

“That is very important for women and girls to know that their voices matter, and to be able to see themselves in positions of leadership like this,” Polito said.

Polito also said she expects Healey to build upon her work as attorney general by having her administration focus on efforts to combat sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking.

After clearing the field in the Democratic primary, Healey ran a general election campaign that positioned her as a stylistic successor to Baker, who has consistently earned high approval ratings among voters. She had little to say Wednesday about how her administration might differ from Baker’s.

“The microphones are going to be a little lower,” quipped Healey, who is 5 feet, 4 inches tall — more than a foot shorter than Baker. “There you go. And the rest, we’ll see.”