The Globe reported that when writing to his classmates on the occasion of their fifth reunion, Baker asked, “Do I miss Harvard?” and then answered, “Not for a second. With a few exceptions...those four years are ones I would rather forget.”

Now more than 30 years since graduation, he echoes the same sentiments: “Harvard? It’s a big place,” he says. “I definitely thought about the question of where I fit the whole time I was there.”

A few years after his school years in Cambridge, Baker headed to Chicago, where he earned an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Since then, he has held a long line of positions in business and government, including Secretary of Health and Human Services and Secretary of Administration and Finance under two different Republican Mass. governors. In the latter position, he was one of the main planners of the Big Dig, a massive, controversial construction project in Boston.

Baker next ventured from government into healthcare. In 1999, he became CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a position he held for ten years before stepping down to run for governor. Harvard Pilgrim, New England’s largest not-for-profit health plan, formed from the 1994 merger of Harvard Community Health Plan—founded at Harvard Medical School—and insurer Pilgrim Health. Harvard Pilgrim still maintains ties to HMS to this day, according to Baker.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STATE

Baker’s background in business and health policy echoes his current calls from the campaign trail. The most important issues in this election, he says, are “jobs and the economic future of Massachusetts.”

Decrying the plight of more than 300,000 Massachusetts residents who are currently out of work, Baker criticizes his Democratic opponent, incumbent Governor Deval L. Patrick ’78, for not taking strong enough measures to boost the state’s economy: “I don’t think he’s been anywhere near aggressive enough in taking those issues on and dealing with them,” Baker says.

“He raised taxes eight times,” he adds. “All of that, I think, negatively affects the state’s ability to compete...Things are headed in the wrong direction, and I don’t think [Patrick] appreciates how much needs to be done to fix our competitive position.”

As the Harvard Republican Club’s vice president of campaigns and activism, Rachel L. Wagley ’11 has been leading student volunteers to Baker’s Boston headquarters to make telephone calls to voters. Wagley praises the “Baker’s Dozen,” 13 proposals which Baker promises would save the state over $1 billion.

“Massachusetts has a huge deficit and out-of-control state spending,” Wagley says, adding that Baker is “really the only candidate” who can address these issues since Patrick and Independent contender Timothy P. Cahill, who currently serves as the state treasurer, have failed to remedy these problems during their current terms.

Baker himself says Patrick hasn’t been running the capital as he should.

“[Patrick] hasn’t really done much to reform Beacon Hill,” Baker says. “It’s pretty much the same government it was when he got there four years ago.”

OUTREACH TO UNDERGRADUATES

Baker and his supporters emphasize several issues which they say should be of particular importance to students voting in this election.

“If you’re a junior or a senior, you should be focused on jobs,” Baker says.