Patrick wins reelection

Roughly two hours after the polls closed, Baker, flanked by his wife Lauren and three children, appeared before supporters who greeted him with cheers of ''We love you, Charlie.'' He conceded the race and said he hoped Patrick would follow through on his pledge to implement some of Baker's reform proposals.

''He won fair and square,'' Baker told the crowd gathered at the House of Blues in Boston. ''We fought the good fight, folks. We have no cause to hang out heads.''

In a race that drew national attention, US Representative Barney Frank, a liberal icon and a target of conservatives across the country, more than survived a challenge from Republican Sean Bielat of Brookline. In the end, Frank beat Bielat handily in the Fourth District.

The Democrats last night held three other congressional seats that had been targeted by Republicans. William R. Keating beat Republican Jeffrey D. Perry for the open 10th District seat. US Representatives Niki Tsongas of Lowell, James P. McGovern of Worcester, and John Tierney of Salem cruised to victory by comfortable margins.

In the contest for treasurer, Steve Grossman, a prodigious Democratic fund-raiser and Newton businessman, defeated Karyn E. Polito, a Republican state representative from Shrewsbury. In the race for auditor, Republican Mary Z. Connaughton of Framingham was battling former Democratic state Representative Suzanne M. Bump of Great Barrington in a tight race.

The GOP did pick up some seats in the state Legislature, knocking off several Democratic incumbents.

In the attorney general’s race, incumbent Martha Coakley, 10 months after she suffered a crushing defeat in January’s US Senate election, easily prevailed over her Republican opponent, James P. McKenna, to win a second term. Her victory revives a political career that had been severely damaged after Democrats blamed her for losing Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat to Republican Scott Brown.

Patrick's victory came with the help of a strong Democratic ground game, which the governor paid tribute to in his speech last night. He rolled up wide margins in Democratic strongholds and liberal-leaning communities around the state in an election that drew strong turnout statewide.

Baker, who the state GOP believed would lead a Republican revival up and down the ticket, was unable to win enough votes in GOP bastions to offset Patrick’s advantage.

Patrick’s win caps a long and hard-fought campaign that began in earnest nearly 18 months ago, when Baker and Timothy P. Cahill made the decision to run.

At the time, Patrick’s prospects for reelection appeared dim. Polls showed he had a very low standing with the public and his job-approval rating was far below the level typically needed by incumbent governors to get reelected. Democratic Party leaders were privately predicting that he could not win a second term.

But Patrick, one of the best campaigners in modern Massachusetts political history, hit the trail with full force, resurrecting his image, raising money, and putting himself back into contention. Because of the presence of Cahill, the state treasurer who ran as an independent, Baker never quite got the clean one-on-one contest with Patrick that Republicans wanted.

For decades, Baker and Patrick, who were only a class apart at Harvard, were hardly adversaries. They even broached the idea of a political partnership in 2005, when Patrick called Baker and suggested they run for governor and lieutenant governor on a ‘‘bipartisan ticket.’’ Baker rejected the idea, but shared breakfast with Patrick after his victory in 2006, served on Patrick’s transition team, and helped him tighten state ethics laws.

In deciding to challenge Patrick, in July 2009, Baker was fulfilling the hopes of many Massachusetts Republicans, who have long viewed him as an ideal candidate and the heir apparent to former governor William F. Weld’s blend of social liberalism and fiscally conservative views. As a hard-charging state budget chief and health and human services official under Weld and Paul Cellucci, Baker developed a reputation as a boy wonder, ambitious, smart, and possessed with a voracious appetite for policy.

Later, as chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, he was credited with helping to pull the company back from the brink of fiscal collapse.
As a candidate for governor, however, Baker struggled, especially in the early chapters of the campaign. He adopted the angry tone of the political season — reflected in his motto, ‘‘Had enough?’’ — but struggled to introduce himself to workaday voters. Beloved by GOP insiders, he suffered from low likeability ratings, particularly among women.

Democrats sought to paint him as wealthy and out of touch, mocking the $1.7 million salary he drew at Harvard Pilgrim while the company was increasing insurance premiums. Baker was also dogged by questions about his role in crafting a finance plan for the Big Dig that relied on heavy borrowing and modest toll increases, deferring the toughest decisions on tolls and taxes to future governors.

But many Baker voters embraced the candidate’s message that Massachusetts needed to hold down spending and slash taxes if it was to fully recover from the recession.

‘‘I really want to see some change, because I’m not happy with the way the economic situation is here,’’ said Donna Centamore, a 58-year-old Republican who voted in Brockton. ‘‘I’m just really upset with the whole administration.’’

Patrick voters, however, credited the governor with helping to guide the state through economic straits without gutting services and strategic investments.

‘‘We’re one of the better states in terms of education, life science, and unemployment,’’ said John Swenson, a 25-year-old who voted in South Boston, and added that he particularly liked Patrick’s style in debates.

Cahill, because of his prior experience running statewide and his $3 million warchest, showed unusual strength for an independent in the early polls, often running ahead of Baker with Patrick holding the lead. But his candidacy collapsed after the Republican Governors Association targeted him with several million dollars worth of attack ads. GOP strategists were convinced he was drawing conservative votes that Baker needed to defeat Patrick.

Last night, Cahill, who captured about 8 percent of votes, conceded the race at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, telling 300 supporters that "I accept that decision, although it's hard for me because I hate to lose – God I hate to lose."

"I believe this state is better because of the fight we’ve had," Cahill said. "I don’t mean just us – I mean all the candidates."