Taking It To Charlie: Springfield Conservative Running Against Governor Baker in GOP Primary
By Evan Lips | December 7, 2017, 0:27 EDT
Scott Lively at a 2014 governor’s candidate forum. (YouTube) Springfield’s Scott Lively, a conservative whose views have made him a target of the Southern Poverty Law Center, ran for Massachusetts governor in 2014 as an Independent. Earlier this month Lively filed documents with Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s office to challenge Baker as a Republican.
In 2014, Lively’s Independent run garnered him about 20,000 votes — just south of 1 percent. If that sounds small, it’s much higher than he thought possible.
On Wednesday night Lively, 59, told New Boston Post, in an interview transcribed word-for-word below, that he thinks by challenging Baker in a Republican primary, he can at least force the popular governor to come clean with voters on his viewpoints, which Lively claims are not very conservative at all.
Lively is expected to formally announce his candidacy Thursday.
I did see that you entered your name to run for governor.
Yes, I’ve filed the — I’ve created the campaign committee, I’ve opened the bank account, all that’s been done. I have everything in place for being able to build my campaign infrastructure and raise money.
But this time you’re going to do it as a Republican, and you’re going to primary Governor Baker.
Yes. Last time I was doing it to just simply mount a platform to represent biblical and conservative values. I didn’t want to win. I made it clear up front that I didn’t want to win, I did it part time. I raised only the minimal amount of money I needed just to be able to do the basics, and I did surprisingly well for that. I never expected to ever do it again. But, as time has gone on, and has things have continued to get worse here in Massachusetts — and Baker has turned out to be an even bigger disappointment than I thought he would be — I’ve decided that I’m going to go for it this time, and I’m going to run to win.
Can you tell me a few of the things that have caught your attention regarding Governor Baker, and things that you disagree with?
Well, the thing that pushed me over the line, really, in making a decision, was when Charlie Baker promised to replace any money that Planned Parenthood lost from Congressional action. That’s the number-one issue for me. In my opinion, if any person is willing to kill unborn babies through abortion, is not fit for office. I said that publicly in the first campaign, and I was hoping maybe he [Baker] would moderate on that, but he has not. He’s as hardcore as ever.
The second, the fiscal issues — Charlie Baker is a big government statist. That’s been the biggest surprise of all, he’s a Democrat, heading the Republican ticket, everything right down the line — he’s showing disdain for conservatives in Massachusetts, he completely disregards conservative opinions and positions, he’s spent — I don’t know how much money — trying to gut the conservative influence in the GOP, It’s just one issue right after the other. He’s just part of the swamp.
He [Baker] did, however, support Dean Tran’s bid to become a Massachusetts state senator. Does that change your opinion at all?
No, Charlie Baker is going to do whatever is best for Charlie Baker, and he’s going to throw a bone here and there, and he is officially a Republican and so whenever he has a chance to support a Republican over a Democrat he’s going to do that just as … if he didn’t, you know, the liberal Republicans would reject him. So I’m not surprised when occasionally he’s going to do something that’s right. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. At least that’s back when they had analog clocks, that metaphor would go right over the heads of these millennials today.
Obviously you need the millennial vote, do you think your views are going to hurt or help you in that respect?
Well, I believe a politician’s job is not to pander to the existing electorate, but to show leadership in the direction that things should go. I think that the millennials, in this country, and all across America, have been terribly served by our public education system, by the popular culture, by the news media, by the entertainment media, and they have adopted an ideology that’s harmful to themselves, to our culture and to future generations.
I want to challenge millennials to come out into the light. The millennials are sort of defined these days by the phenomenon of, you know, “snowflakes,” and the “Black Lives Matter” race-baiting, and those kind of things. And someone needs to stand up and say that, who is not afraid to say that, and to present the counter-arguments in a context in which they’ll listen to them
These kids have never heard the things that I’m going to say.
And that hasn’t come from Charlie Baker?
That’s right. That has not come from Charlie Baker, or any of his cronies. Charlie Baker panders. I don’t pander. That’s the thing. When I ran in 2014, I never expected to do it again, but I demonstrated that I don’t care about the status, I don’t care about reputation, I don’t care about money — I care about principles, and I’ve made that crystal clear. Everybody could recognize that, when I ran, and because of the way that I ran — I said I don’t even want the office.
And so I’ve proved myself in terms of principles. Charlie Baker is exactly the opposite. He’s a man without principles, who simply will run for office, on the Republican platform, and then turn against every single thing that that platform — most everything — that that platform stands for.
You think about Charlie [Baker], and the fact that he has this popularity rating, does that deter you in any way, or are you still committed?
I’m actually, I’m glad. You see, there’s no place for Charlie Baker to go but down. If he’s got 71 percent approval rating, as I begin to give voice to what the conservatives are all saying and thinking privately, that’s going to create waves, and I think you’re going to watch Charlie Baker’s numbers come down, and I’m going to take credit for that, because I’m going to be bashing him and he needs to be bashed.
Do you think he [Baker] is wrong to come out and say that Massachusetts, as a commonwealth, is a “global” society?
Charlie Baker is a globalist. I think Charlie — in the primary, he’s going to have to come back and try to appeal to the Republicans again.
Why doesn’t anybody want to be a Republican?
Wanted to ask you about that. Do you think anybody else is going to primary him?
No. He’s got $7 million, and he’s got 71 percent approval rating, people who are politically minded — people whose lives revolve around this stuff, who make calculations based on the way things are done. There’s been a way to do things in politics, at least up until Trump.
Trump broke the mold, but I broke the mold even before Trump did — you know, I’m no billionaire, and I was running just a part-time campaign, but anyone who is approaching politics with that mindset is going to be intimidated by Charlie Baker — the 71 percent approval rating, a massive campaign war chest, that just sends fear.
They don’t want to come out and have their political careers ruined by making a terrible showing.
I just don’t care.
I don’t care about those things. I’m running because I believe in the principles. Either the Lord is going to be with me … if the Lord wants me to win, I’ll win. If he doesn’t, I won’t.
But I’m going to give it everything I’ve got in the meantime, and I’m just going to let all that — whatever happens, happens — and I don’t care about any future political career. If I don’t make it, so be it, but I’m going to give it everything I’ve got, and I’m going to talk about the way things ought to be in contrast to the way that they are, and show how this man [Baker] does not represent the party that he is heading, or the best interests of the commonwealth.
OK, one of my last questions — as an evangelical, what do you think about Trump? He’s come out in support of Roy Moore in Alabama.
I like Roy Moore. I like Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is going to go down in the history books as having more impact on this country than almost any other president. At least, in over the past century. He’s already looming larger as a figure than Ronald Reagan, and he has idiosyncrasies in his personality but he’s a political genius, and I’ve just been impressed with him every step of the way.
You know, I don’t necessarily support every tweet, but the cumulative effect of the things that he’s done has really been nothing short of positive, and I think you can measure the value of a conservative by how apoplectic the left gets.
They have never been as insane as they are today.
This really says something positive about him, and, about Roy Moore.
Tell me about what you do in Springfield.
I’m the founder of the Redemption Gate Mission Society. We run an inner-city mission that serves the most disadvantaged populations in the city of Springfield, people in recovery from various things, people with mental illness, homeless, et cetera.
It’s a church in the form of a coffeehouse that serves as place for spiritual guidance and Bible studies, and a drop-in center for people who are interested in transforming their lives, and digging out of the hole.
But I am also a missionary to the global pro-family movement — I’ve been to 27 countries in the past two years, I’ve been doing a study on populism and nationalism around the world, firsthand, and all through eastern Europe, western Europe, east-central Asia — I was in London for the Brexit vote, I was in Hungary, and looked into the Christian Democrat party there that Victor Orban heads, Romania, Bulgaria — all through. I’ve been to 58 countries total, in my life, and by bringing a global perspective within the context of a Biblical, conservative worldview.
Just want you to know that one of the things I want to do with this profile is — more or less — what you’re going to read, and what I write, is exactly what you’ve said.
Good. I appreciate that. You mean you’re going to be an actual journalist with no propaganda?
Well, whatever you said, is what’s going to go in. There’s going to be no slant from me. It’s just going to be out there.
Our press statement is coming out tomorrow.
