Former MBTA chief administrator Brian Shortsleeve launches Republican run for governor

Brian Shortsleeve a venture capitalist and former MBTA chief administrator formally launched his campaign for governor Monday making the -year-old the second Republican to officially jump into the race for the state s executive office ahead of the elections The Barnstable resident joins a race that has already started to focus on Gov Maura Healey s handling of an influx of displaced persons to Massachusetts and legislative Democrats spending habits on Beacon Hill But Shortsleeve faces an uphill battle to win the Governor s Office from a well-funded Healey with President Donald Trump in the White House In an announcement video shared with the Herald Shortsleeve drew heavily upon his time with the U S Marine Corps arguing that Massachusetts necessities a veteran to cut spending reduce taxes and make the state affordable for families and businesses I ll restore common sense to the commonwealth and put Massachusetts first This is our home where we re raising our boys and I m not letting it fall apart without a fight This isn t a campaign It s a mission for Massachusetts and I m ready You in noted Shortsleeve who has three sons with his wife Liz The first-time candidate for elected office does not plan to seed his campaign with any of his own money at the outset Healey had nearly million in campaign cash on hand as of the end of April according to state records Shortsleeve mentioned he wants to focus on four urgent priorities on his first day in office the surge of immigrants to the state taxes and fees repealing a transit-oriented housing law and auditing every state agency to cut wasteful spending He criticized Healey who explained she plans to run for a second term next year for spending hundreds of millions on expatriates while raising taxes on us It s no wonder people and businesses are fleeing the state he commented in the launch video This isn t leadership it s insanity and Massachusetts deserves better I ve got my mission as governor on day one I ll cut spending The budget is soaring up in just six years The Healey administration has spent more than million this year on state-run shelters housing expatriates and local families But caseloads have started to fall and the governor says roughly three-quarters of those in shelter are longtime Massachusetts families Shortsleeve s entrance into the race for governor sets up the likely for a Republican primary in which he could face Mike Kennealy a -year-old Lexington conservative who previously served as a cabinet secretary under Gov Charlie Baker and launched his own bid last month In a declaration to the Herald Sunday afternoon Ben Hincher Kennealy s campaign manager mentioned Shortsleeve had a chance to lead but mismanaged the MBTA and left it in just as big a mess as he exposed it Massachusetts demands a manager to clean up Maura Healey s mess Hincher mentioned It s hard to imagine what exactly he s proud of Michael Minogue a mega-donor to Republican causes is also considering running for governor next year Shortsleeve served as chief administrator of the MBTA from July to July and was a member of the former Fiscal Management and Control Board from July to July He also served as acting general manager of the agency In an interview with the Herald last week Shortsleeve touted his time at the transit agency saying Baker called him to help manage the organization s financial healthcare In his launch video he announced he took on a mission impossible A insufficient years ago the MBTA was falling apart Gov Baker called me in Talk about mission impossible but I got to work Cut the waste balanced the budget modernized the system We turned things around until Gov Healy took it back and broke the budget all over again he noted The MBTA was the subject of a series of high-profile failures that stemmed back to Baker s time in office including narrow and defective tracks on the agency s billion Green Line Extension and a month-long shutdown of the Orange Line Shortsleeve also oversaw one of the early expansions of a contract with CRRC a Chinese-owned company that was hired by the state to produce new Orange and Red Line cars The deal has faced multiple delays and is now worth more than billion The veteran is also sure to face criticism from Democrats for helping Florida Gov Ron DeSantis presidential campaign and backing Trump in last year s electoral contest Shortsleeve held a charity fundraiser for DeSantis that helped the unsuccessful presidential candidate raise more than He was also appointed to the DeSantis presidential campaign s national finance committee In the interview with the Herald last week Shortsleeve did not directly say why he worked with DeSantis He instead pointed to his time at Harvard where he explained he worked with the Florida governor to push the university to keep its ROTC initiative I m very proud to have been a member of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC which is a group in the present day that still advocates on behalf of ROTC Gov DeSantis is a member of that group and it s been a great effort Shortsleeve disclosed