Frank Baker (born 1968) is an American politician who represents District 3 on the

Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...

. He was first elected on November 8, 2011.

Personal life

Baker is the 12th child of John and Eileen Baker, and was raised in Saint Margaret's Parish (now St. Teresa of Calcutta), which is better known as the

Savin Hill Savin Hill is a section of Dorchester, the largest neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Named after the geographic feature it covers and surrounds, Savin Hill is about one square mile in area, and has a population of about 1 ...

section of Dorchester. He graduated in 1986 from Don Bosco Technical High School where he has studied printing trade. Between 1987 and 2010 he worked in the printing department at the

City of Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

. He is a member of the CWA/Boston Typographical Union. He is married to his wife Today and they have two children.

Political career

Baker was first elected to the

representing District 3 in 2011. Incumbent District 3 Council

Maureen Feeney Maureen Feeney is an American politician who served on the Boston City Council and was the City Clerk of Boston, Massachusetts. City Council From 1994 to 2011 she represented Dorchester on the Boston City Council. She served as City Council pr ...

declined to run for reelection, and a large field of candidates ran to replace her. Baker faced John O'Toole in the general election, with Baker running out of the northern part of the district in Savin Hill, and O'Toole drawing his support from the southern part of the district in Adams Village and Neponset. The race was widely seen at the time as a contest between then-Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

and State Representative and Boston Building Trades' chief

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

, with Menino backing O'Toole, and Walsh backing Baker. Baker won, receiving 5,262 votes to O'Toole's 4,120. Baker is the chair of the Jobs, Wages, and Workforce Development Committee and the Special Committee on Charter Reform. He is vice chair of the Planning, Development and Transportation Committee as well as a member of the committees on Census and Redistricting, City, Neighborhood Services and Veterans Affairs, Government Operations, Homelessness, Mental Health and Recovery, Housing and Community Development, and Ways and Means. Baker is affiliated with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. In 2016, while chairing the Charter Reform Committee, he proposed that council members serve four year terms, not two year terms. His arguments include that the members running for reelection spent much of the second year running and not focusing on the Council and that the city could save approximately $1.6 million by not having elections in low turn out years. The council vote 8–1 in favor but at the time, it was not clear what Mayor Marty Walsh thought about the proposal. He would need to sign off on the proposal and send it to the State House for a vote in order for it to take effect. In 2023, Baker and

Erin Murphy Erin Margaret Murphy (born June 17, 1964) is an American actress, who is best known for her role as young Tabitha Stephens in the television sitcom ''Bewitched'', in 103 episodes from the show's third season (in 1966) to the last original episo ...

were the only two City Council members to vote against advancing a home rule petition asking the state to allow the city to implement proposals by Mayor

Michelle Wu Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

to reform the Boston Planning & Development Agency and to enact a form of

rent control Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price cont ...

. Baker was one of four Boston City Councilors that voted against the council's

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

map that was approved after the

2020 United States Census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

. The map made alterations to the shape of Baker's district and a neighboring district. To account for the population growth of the

South Boston Waterfront South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...

, several white majority conservative precincts in his district were moved into a neighboring district. Baker took particular issue with the map's separation of precincts around Dorchester's Adams Village business area into different city council districts. The map that Baker was against was ultimately prohibited by preliminary injunction from being used in the 2023 Boston City Council election after a ruling by Federal Judge

Patti Saris Patti B. Saris (born July 20, 1951) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is also the former Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission. Early life and education Saris ...

. In 2023, Baker announced that after six terms on city council that he would not be running for another term. Joel Richards, a Boston Public School teacher and member of the Democratic Socialists of America's local chapter announced he would run for the council seat prior to Baker's statement. Richards finished 3rd in the 2021 election in District 4, and after the 2022 redistricting process significant portions of that district are now part of Baker's District 3.

Election Results

2019

2017

2015

2013

2011

References

Boston City Council members Living people Politicians from Dorchester, Massachusetts Don Bosco Technical High School (Boston) alumni Massachusetts Democrats 21st-century American politicians 1968 births {{Massachusetts-politician-stub