For Baker, 'presence' was about all he gave legislators at COVID-19 hearing

State Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, told Gov. Charlie Baker last week that the state needed him "to be more present" as it grapples with the latest COVID-19 surge. The governor's presence, however, was about all legislators got.

With every conversation of late beginning and ending with COVID-19, the governor's appearance on Tuesday before the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management had marquee billing.

But if lawmakers thought they were going to bully Baker into having an aha moment on masks, remote learning or anything else, they found out pretty quickly that the governor wasn't there to appease them.

Friedman's quip was one of several moments during the oversight hearing where friction between the executive and legislative branches over the response to the omicron wave was on display.

The governor did not waffle in his opposition to a statewide mask mandate, his belief in in-person schooling, or his defense of efforts to provide access to testing, noting at one point this week that, lines notwithstanding, the state has as much testing capacity "as you find anywhere in America."

That left legislators disappointed.

"Today we didn't move the needle on some of those mandates as I hoped we would," committee co-chair Sen. Jo Comerford said.

Baker commutes sentences

Baker showed he's not completely rigid in his thinking, as he became the first governor in 25 years to agree to commute the sentences of two men serving life sentences for murder.

In his last year as governor without the prospect of a Republican primary, Baker last week recommended the commutation of the sentences of William Allen, 48, and Thomas Koonce, 54, to second-degree murder, which would make both eligible for parole.

It's not unusual for governors to wait until their final year in office to consider pardons and commutations given the political sensitivity around such actions, and it's possible these won't be his last.

"I believe both men, having taken responsibility for their actions and paid their debt to the commonwealth by serving sentences longer than most individuals found guilty of similar actions, deserve the right to seek parole from prison," Baker said.

If released, Allen and Koonce will enter a society that looks a lot different than the one they knew before prison.

Wu meets with Spilka

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu visited with Senate President Karen Spilka at the State House on Thursday where the Senate was back in action, holding the first substantive session for either legislative branch since returning from the winter break for the new year.

On the docket were two bills to make state ID cards more accessible to homeless residents and to repeal a prohibition on adults adopting younger siblings, aunts or uncles.

Both bills passed unanimously, 39-0. But if the Senate had waited another week, it could have gotten that 40th vote.

That's because Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards won her uncontested special general election on Tuesday, held under frigid conditions, and this week will take the oath of office as the newest senator from the First Suffolk and Middlesex District, representing Winthrop, Revere and parts of Cambridge and Boston.

The Democrat from East Boston will be the first Black woman to serve in the Senate since Dorchester's Linda Dorcena Forry, and will join just two other members of color.

Donaghue to run for new seat

Longtime Democratic activist Kate Donaghue announced last week that she will be a candidate for a newly created state representative seat in MetroWest.

The 19th Worcester District, which was created after the Census redistricting, includes a portion of Framingham, along with all of Southborough and most of both Westborough and Northborough.

"I'm running for state representative to make a difference on issues that impact my neighbors," said Donaghue, in a statement.

A Westborough resident, Donaghue said her key issues include health care, with a focus on substance use disorder and supporting family caregivers; tackling climate change; and supporting public education.

"As a mother to a son who died of an overdose, and a caregiving spouse who recently lost my husband to cancer, I have experience and insights into the challenges with our health care system that plague too many families in Westborough, Northborough, Southborough and Framingham," she said.

Donaghue has launched a campaign website, KateDonaghue.com.

Framingham BOH seeks members

There are three vacancies on Framingham’s Board of Health, and Mayor Charlie Sisitsky is looking to fill them.

Last month, Gov. Baker approved a home rule petition to expand the city’s Board of Health from three members to five. Also last month, former BOH Vice Chair Laura Housman announced she would not seek reappointment to the board after her second three-year term expired at the end of December.

The city posted the three vacancies online last week, inviting community members with skillsets in public health, medicine, law or business to apply.

Sisitsky said during a Board of Health meeting on Tuesday that his office will soon review applications and interview candidates, with a goal of making recommendations to the City Council by the end of January or sometime in February at the latest. Sisitsky’s selections are then subject to council approval.

Interested? Apply online at tinyurl.com/FraminghamBOH.

They said it...

"She ran a brilliant campaign. It's not just lip service. When she's ready, I hope she'll be willing to work with me and city leadership. Her voice is one that's needed." — Framingham District 3 City Councilor Adam Steiner, praising his opponent, Mary Kate Feeney, after defeating her in a special election on Tuesday.

"My campaign was about Framingham's future. It is a future I believe is bright and full of promise. Today's results may not be what I had worked so hard for, but it does not discourage me. I am not giving up, and neither should you." — Feeney, speaking to her supporters after Tuesday's special election.

"My client was surprised and extremely disappointed that after a year of defending the settlement agreement and the dismissal of the Land Court case, the board has done a 180-degree turn." — Don Keavany, attorney for Grafton and Upton Railroad and One Hundred Forty Realty Trust, commenting on the Hopedale Select Board's decision to abandon its agreement to split 130 acres of forestland with the railroad and to instead pursue acquiring all of it.

Contributors to the Political Notebook this week include Deputy Director of Multimedia Dan O'Brien, multimedia journalist Abby Patkin and the State House News Service.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: MA Gov. Baker holds firm to his beliefs in fighting COVID-19