After prominence on campaign, first lady Lauren Baker is finding her own role
With the first year of Charlie Baker’s administration nearing an end, first lady Lauren Baker is still patiently searching for a topic to focus her energy, The Boston Globe reports.
Lauren Baker was a prominent figure during her husband’s gubernatorial campaign last year. Charlie Baker, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2010, featured his wife, daughter, brother, and dog in ads that tried to reintroduce him to the public as a gentler, kinder candidate. Lauren Baker’s active campaign messaging role was a good fit for her media and communications skills, which she honed as an account executive at advertising firm Hill Holiday.
Their strategy worked, of course. But now that the Baker family is in the State House, Lauren Baker has yet to find a spot to focus her energy. She’s preaching patience, she told the Globe.
“People will start asking you the second you’re inaugurated — ‘What’s your initiative? What are you going to do? What impact do you want to have? What legacy do you want to leave?’ You don’t have to decide immediately. Be patient,’’ Baker recalled. “Let the administration kind of gel. And then figure out where your passions and your ability to add value intersect, and it will come to you.’’
In the meantime, she does have one key responsibility. Following in the tradition of former first lady Jessie Sargent, Baker is president of the Doric Docents, a volunteer group of tour guides in the State House. Other than that, she downplayed her political role despite her closeness to the state’s chief executive.
“I don’t want anyone to think I am impacting public policy because I am not at all,’’ she said, but “we are definitely talking about work because we’re living it.’’
You can read the rest of the story at The Boston Globe.
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