Baker And Hudak

Bill Hudak, Republican congressional candidate in John Tierney's district, has not always been warmly embraced by mainstream Republicans -- in fact, when Hudak announced that Scott Brown had endorsed him, Brown quickly denied it and forced a retraction.

But Charlie Baker has no problem appearing with the guy. Earlier this month, Baker accepted an invitation to speak at a large Hudak event; he came, took the stage with Hudak, and briefly addressed the audience.

"Charlie was speaking to voters," says campaign spokesperson Rick Gorka. "We're going to talk to voters everywhere."

Asked whether Baker personally considers Hudak's questioning of Obama's citizenship, or comparing Obama to bin Laden, offensive, Gorka replied "They're not things Charlie agrees with."

Dan Kennedy has done yeoman's work cataloguing Hudak's extremism, some of which was originally reported by Tri-Town Transcript.

Among the highlights: Hudak, in 2008, proudly displayed on his Boxford lawn an array of anti-Obama signs, one of which depicted Barack Obama as Osama bin Laden. He showed reporters documents that, he claimed, proved that Obama was born in Kenya. (He has admitted showing the documents, but now denies that he believed them.) He claimed that Obama had ties to the Muslim faith. He referred to Obama as "Barry Soweto," as is common on so-called "birther" web sites.

Hudak recently held a campaign event at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly -- "Stand Up For America: A Celebration of Freedom," Todd Feinburgand Jeff Katz, along with Barbara Anderson, According to Hudak, it was part fundraiser, part campaign rally. 

Baker was hardly the only institutional Republican in attendance. Among those on hand were former Congressman Peter Torkildsen, state representatives Brad Hill and Brad Jones, and a host of area legislative candidates.

That certainly fooled Wicked Local Topsfield; a photo caption accompanying a story about the event included the line: "Also on hand to support Hudak’s candidacy for the 6th district seat were Charlie Baker...."

"We're all in this working together," Hudak says.