Frank Baker, the Boston City Council’s conservative Dorchester stalwart, announced Thursday he will not seek re-election.
“After a lengthy deliberation, I am confident and certain this is my time to depart the Council and serve in a different capacity,” the six-term councilor said in a statement.
Baker’s statement failed to mention specific reasons for his departure. But his announcement comes as the Boston City Council, which has shifted leftward in recent years, struggles to govern with civility. The council also awaits a federal ruling in a lawsuit that could impact the shape of the city’s voting map for the next decade. Baker, whose district saw some of the biggest changes within the new map, has helped to fund the suit. One councilor has publicly labeled the lawsuit as frivolous, while other Boston politicians have quietly agreed.
The latest council term has been one regularly marked by petty procedural moves and passive-aggressive, or outrightly hostile, interactions between colleagues. In one instance, while heatedly debating the boundaries of the city’s new voting map, Baker invoked the idea of violent Irish sectarian conflict by implying his Irish Protestant colleague, Liz Breadon, was making political targets of the Irish Catholics living within his district.
Baker, one of four members of the council’s right-of-center bloc, has frequently served as a minority voice, and in some cases, the lone “no” vote on various council measures.
He has spoken out against a proposal to lower the municipal voting age, and against Mayor Michelle Wu’s approach to putting those struggling with homelessness, mental health and substance use disorder into low-threshold supportive housing within the city’s neighborhoods.
Baker was also one of two votes against Wu’s rent-control proposal, putting him at odds with a city executive whose politics and priorities differ from Baker’s longtime neighbor, friend and political ally, former Mayor Marty Walsh.
Despite his penchant for making headlines, Baker has built a name as a proud advocate of the working class focused on practical constituent services like fixing potholes, beautifying parks and installing resident parking signs. He’s currently involved in a push to bring a new fieldhouse to Dorchester in partnership with the Martin Richard Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Baker has faced only two election challenges over the last decade. In the latest, Baker beat out challenger Stephen McBride with 62.9% of the vote. It was the lowest portion he has earned since first winning the seat in 2011, after losing a job in the city’s now-defunct printing department.
He did not immediately respond to GBH News requests for further comment.
