Centrist Independent Voter endorses Brian Shortsleeve in Massachusetts’s September 1 Republican primary for governor.
Shortsleeve faces former medical-device executive Mike Minogue for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Governor Maura Healey.
This is not a choice between a moderate Republican and an extremist. Minogue has an impressive résumé of his own. He is a West Point graduate and combat veteran who helped build Abiomed into a major medical-device company. He has also said clearly that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that, although he is personally opposed to abortion, he would uphold Massachusetts law.
Shortsleeve nevertheless offers the stronger combination of relevant government experience, fiscal discipline and compatibility with the kind of Republican leadership that has previously succeeded in Massachusetts.
A Record of Government Management
Shortsleeve is a Marine veteran, businessman and former venture capitalist. His most relevant qualification, however, is his service in the administration of Republican Governor Charlie Baker.
Baker brought Shortsleeve into the troubled Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority after the system’s disastrous winter of 2015. Shortsleeve served as chief administrator and acting general manager and later on the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board.
During that reform period, the MBTA reduced its projected operating deficit, introduced more rigorous budgeting and financial controls, restructured contracts and work practices, increased spending on maintenance and reset the troubled Green Line Extension project.
Government experience does not automatically make someone a good governor. But Shortsleeve has actually confronted a large, politically difficult public organization, worked through its finances and attempted to make it function better. That experience is unusually relevant to the job he now seeks.
Fiscal and Economic Policy
Shortsleeve’s campaign emphasizes taxes, government spending, regulation, energy costs and Massachusetts’s weak private-sector job growth.
Much of that approach is compatible with Centrist Independent Voter’s preference for government that pays attention to incentives, costs and measurable results. He proposes reviewing state agencies and programs for waste and inefficiency, reducing taxes and fees and making regulation less burdensome for businesses.
We would prefer more specificity about which spending he would reduce and how proposed tax cuts would affect the state budget. Promising to find waste is easier than actually balancing competing demands for public services.
But Shortsleeve’s managerial record gives those promises somewhat greater credibility than campaign rhetoric alone would provide.
Abortion
Massachusetts’s existing abortion law is reasonably close to Centrist Independent Voter’s own position: broad abortion rights earlier in pregnancy, with restrictions and medical exceptions later.
Shortsleeve describes himself as a pro-choice Republican. Minogue is personally pro-life but says he would enforce existing Massachusetts law. We take that assurance seriously.
Shortsleeve supports Massachusetts’s recently enacted expansion of abortion rights, which gives physicians greater discretion in unusual cases occurring after 24 weeks. That goes somewhat beyond the compromise reflected in Centrist Independent Voter’s current abortion policy. We do not regard that difference as a significant objection to his candidacy. Our policy is intended as a workable national compromise rather than a claim that states should never adopt somewhat different rules.
Important Reservations
Shortsleeve is not simply a continuation of the moderate Republicanism associated with Baker.
He supported the Republican ticket, including Donald Trump, in 2024 and has taken a considerably harder line on immigration during this campaign. He favors ending Massachusetts’s sanctuary policies and expanding cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
He also proposes repealing the MBTA Communities Act, which requires many communities served by public transit to permit additional multifamily housing. Centrist Independent Voter disagrees with him here. Our housing policy recognizes legitimate local concerns but also concludes that state governments sometimes must limit local restrictions that prevent housing supply from responding to demand. Shortsleeve’s alternative of relying primarily on incentives and voluntary local action may not be sufficient.
His energy proposals present another disagreement. Shortsleeve favors additional natural-gas infrastructure and reducing or eliminating some Massachusetts climate mandates. Lower energy costs are a legitimate objective, and we share his preference for market-oriented energy policy. But Centrist Independent Voter believes climate change requires an economically efficient policy response, not simply abandonment of efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
The Choice
The best argument for choosing Shortsleeve over Minogue is about governing.
Massachusetts has repeatedly demonstrated that it can elect Republican governors when they combine fiscal restraint with administrative competence and an ability to govern a heavily Democratic state.
Shortsleeve has actual experience doing difficult work inside Massachusetts government. He brings a serious financial and managerial background and comes from a Republican tradition that has demonstrated an ability to govern beyond the party’s ideological base.
We disagree with him on housing, elements of immigration policy and aspects of his energy program. We also would like a clearer answer on the pending changes to Massachusetts abortion law. Those are substantial reservations.
On balance, however, Brian Shortsleeve offers Massachusetts Republicans the stronger choice.
Centrist Independent Voter endorses Brian Shortsleeve in the Republican primary for governor of Massachusetts.