Gov. Charlie Baker speaks with State House reporters Monday. (State House News Service photo by Antonio Caban)
BOSTON – One of the architects of Gov. Charlie Baker’s successful 2014 campaign for governor is leaving his official position within the administration, but he’s not going far.
Jim Conroy, who managed Baker’s gubernatorial campaign last cycle, will leave his senior advisor position and return to consulting, but will continue to advise Baker and the Massachusetts Republican Party on political issues, and plans to get involved at the outset with issues aligned with Baker’s agenda.
“There are important meaningful things I can do on the outside that are more consistent with what I do and that are Baker things, like the charter ballot initiative,” Conroy said.
Conroy’s tenure with the administration was supposed to be temporary when he joined the executive office last January, but he stayed for more than year. Communications director Tim Buckley has been promoted to senior advisor, but will retain his communications title and portfolio along with his enhanced duties.
The administration has also hired Thomas Dickens, a former New Jersey Gov Chris Christie aide and advisor, as director of external affairs to interface on behalf of the administration with outside advocacy groups and businesses. Dickens joins the Baker team coming off Christie’s presidential campaign, which was endorsed by Baker, where he worked as national field director.
Baker said he was thankful that through a “twist of fate” Conroy found his way onto his 2014 campaign from Connecticut where he had been working as a political consultant, and came to “really respect both his judgment and his leadership and his common sense.”
“I’ve come to view him not only as a friend but as somebody whose advice and whose instinct and whose insight on public policy matters and on, sort of governing in general, are first rate,” Baker said.
Gov. Charlie Baker speaks with State House reporters Monday. (State House News Service photo by Antonio Caban) 
