Teamsters Local 25, the powerful Charlestown-based union that represents more than 11,500 Massachusetts workers and that backed the Democratic nominee for governor in 2014, endorsed Republican Governor Charlie Baker for reelection Thursday.

“He’s proven to be a great steward for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,’’ President Sean M. O’Brien said in a telephone interview, cheering Baker’s job-creation efforts in the state. “He’s lived up to everything he said he was going to do on the job. I’m a firm believer that you support the best people for the job.’’

O’Brien — who leads a union that represents UPS workers, Massport employees, school administrators, and people in many other sectors — also praised Baker’s bipartisan chops, saying, “It’s a good thing when you reach across the aisle.’’

The nod marks an extraordinary shift for a union that worked to defeat the Republican in 2014.

O’Brien and his members hosted Democratic nominee Martha Coakley at a fiery union hall rally where she derided Baker as someone “who just sees numbers, who sees the bottom line, who doesn’t mind a cut even when it affects families or their health care or their jobs.’’

But it’s not unprecedented for the local to endorse a Republican gubernatorial candidate. It backed Paul Cellucci’s 1998 campaign for governor.

The endorsement left other major union players in Massachusetts, who are deeply tied to the Democratic establishment, a bit tongue tied.

“Hello? You’re breaking up!’’ Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven A. Tolman said when asked about the Teamsters endorsement Thursday. “I can’t hear you. It sounds like you’re under water,’’ said a laughing Tolman, who is a member of the Democratic State Committee.

Tolman said the Teamsters have had a history of not being partisan in their endorsements, and he added there are plenty of working people who do not support Baker.

A top official at the National Association of Government Employees, which represents about 16,000 state and local workers in Massachusetts, was not particularly pleased with the Teamsters’ endorsement.

“I’m a little disappointed in it given the way he’s treating state employees at the bargaining table,’’ said national president David J. Holway. “But I fully support their right to do whatever it is they did because I’m sure it’s what they think is in the best interests of their members.’’

Baker, for his part expressed gratitude for the nod.

“As an administration, we have been proud to work with labor representatives and employers on bipartisan policies that support working families, investing in the skill building programs, infrastructure and economic development opportunities that have attracted new growth and investment, while creating over 180,000 new jobs,’’ he said in a statement. “I am proud to have Teamsters Local 25’s endorsement for re-election, and look forward to our ongoing work with their leaders and members on these important issues in a second term.’’

Three Democrats are running for their party’s gubernatorial nomination, hoping to take on Baker in November.

They are environmentalist and entrepreneur Bob Massie, former Newton mayor Setti Warren, and onetime state budget chief Jay Gonzalez.

The union has been in the news in recent years.

In August, four Teamsters accused of hurling racial epithets and sexist slurs at a “Top Chef’’ crew filming in Milton in 2014 were acquitted of federal extortion charges.

Joshua Miller

Candidate spends big for campaign kickoff

Businessman John Kingston’s idea of a campaign kickoff seems to be more along the lines of what Thurston Howell III (the Yankee elite character of “Gilligan’s Island’’ fame) would prefer than the normal grunts of Massachusetts politics.

Such introductory events are typically bare bones, as campaigns avoid spending cash on feting volunteers and supporters at the outset. But the Republican’s most recent campaign finance report confirmed his October event was top shelf.

The bill for food was $30,000 from Gourmet Caterers, according his filing with the Federal Election Commission. That’s about $75 per person for the 400 supporters who attended his launch to challenge Senator Elizabeth Warren.

And for any Kingston guests having a transportation issue, they got special limo bus rides, costing the campaign about $4,500.

And where does Kingston — who has injected over $3 million into his campaign accounts — hold the candidacy launch? It wasn’t the usual political spots: community centers, public landmarks, a local restaurant.

He instead chose one of the state’s most glittering Democratic mausoleums — the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate, which cost a $10,000 fee and required the campaign to use its catering company.

By those measures, his GOP rivals were definitely déclassé in their choice of venues and refreshments.

State Representative Geoff Diehl’s August event was at the VFW in his hometown of Whitman, where, his aides said, 600 people attended and they spent less than $2,000 on the event. His campaign offered a few Italian dishes and cake from Stop & Shop, and aides said supporters had to pay $50 to get in.

Longtime GOP activist Beth Lindstrom spent about $2,500 for her kickoff in October at a nonprofit center in the Seaport district. She served bagels, her aides said.

So how do Kingston’s campaign leaders react when asked about the optics of the fancy event? They are not running away from the image, saying it was a “historic night’’ for Republican kickoffs in Massachusetts because of the size of the crowd (the Diehl folks would quibble with that). The Kingston campaign argues all that the display of wealth demonstrates is that the candidate has the deep pockets to mount a credible campaign against Warren.

“This entirely underscores the point that John is the best candidate to defeat Warren in November and the candidate with the resources, record, and rhetoric to win, because while he is out prosecuting the case against Senator Warren and offering a vision for the future, the media and his opponents are left complaining about his refreshments served at a successful event held over four months ago,’’ said his spokesman, Jon Conradi.

He also defended the limo buses, saying Kingston wanted to help his supporters get to what he claimed was the most “historic event’’ in state GOP history.

And why the Kennedy institute?

“It showcased John’s willing to take his campaign to every part of the state, including a place named after the Liberal Lion,’’ Conradi said.

Frank Phillips

Garrison may have chance to join City Council

The long trek back from political gadfly to elected office just might be in the cards for Althea Garrison, a perennial city candidate since she won a quirky election in 1992 to serve one term as a state representative.

In fact, she might have just doubled her chances this week, thanks to the sudden race for Suffolk district attorney.

Garrison got just less than 7 percent of the vote when she ran last year for one of the four Boston at-large council seats. She came in fifth, albeit far behind the fourth-place finisher. But now two at-large city councilors, Ayanna Pressley and Michael Flaherty, both of whom were just sworn in last month for two-year terms, are eyeing other offices.

Under city election rules, if either wins, Garrison, after more than 20 attempts (she says she has lost count) to get back into elected office, will, as the next in line, assume the fourth at-large council seat — and collect the $99,500 salary that goes with it.

Pressley announced three weeks ago she wants to take out a fellow Democrat, Representative Michael Capuano, in the Sept. 4 primary. And now Flaherty is a potential candidate to replace District Attorney Dan Conley, who stunned the political world this week when he announced he would not seek another term for the office he’s held since 2002.

“I am very determined; I don’t give up that easy,’’ Garrison said when asked this week about her potential political reincarnation after nearly 24 years.

Garrison’s first major appearance in the political world came when she took out papers as a Republican to oppose a Democratic state representative from Dorchester, Nelson Merced, whose electoral expertise seemed seriously lacking. Merced’s nomination papers were flawed, and he never made the ballot, leaving Garrison a wide opening to serve a brief one term in the House.

It was not an altogether pleasant experience. A reporter for the Boston Herald got a hold of her birth certificate showing she was born a male and given the name A.C. That was in the early 1990s, when transgender issues were still in the dark ages and open to public ridicule, which the Herald freely indulged.

Later, she also didn’t endear herself to gay rights advocates when she opposed same-sex marriages. But she still holds the title as the first known transgender person elected to a Legislature.

After her defeat, the Weld administration and other GOP leaders took care of her with a series of low-level bureaucratic jobs. She also ran numerous times for City Council, state representative, and even mayor — sometimes as a Democrat, and others as a Republican — but never coming close to success.

But this year, she could potentially — although highly unlikely given her electoral past — hit the office jackpot this year. She also is currently running for the state Senate seat vacated by Linda Dorcena Forry.

Frank Phillips

Galvin criticizes lawsuit over Electoral College

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin is calling a lawsuit challenging the state’s method for awarding presidential electoral votes as a bad faith “scheme ... designed to benefit people like Donald Trump if not Donald Trump himself.’’

In an interview, Galvin was riled up about a lawsuit filed against him and Governor Charlie Baker Wednesday that challenged the state’s “winner take all’’ system for allocating its 11 Electoral College votes in presidential elections.

The suit was filed by former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld, who ran in the vice presidential slot on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket in 2016, and two other plaintiffs. It’s part of a four-state push organized by several law firms and the League of United Latin American Citizens. The coalition also spearheaded lawsuits in California (another blue state), South Carolina, and Texas (both reliably Republican states).

Weld did not respond to a request, and Baker’s team declined to comment.

The suits claim the “winner take all’’ approach disenfranchises voters who cast ballots for candidates who lose the popular vote. Plaintiffs cite the more than 1 million people who voted in 2016 for President Trump in Massachusetts, which went for Hillary Clinton with 60 percent of the vote.

That the plaintiffs are not advocating to ditch the Electoral College and elect the president by pure popular vote, Galvin said, shows the lawsuits are politically motivated, despite the fact lawsuits were filed in two red states.

The lawsuits want the court to force Massachusetts and the other states to develop a new way of handing out electoral votes. But they also say they don’t want Electoral College votes doled out by congressional district, as is done in Maine and Nebraska, the only two states that don’t follow a pure “winner take all’’ method.

The lawsuit “just deepens the lines of division,’’ said Galvin. “This whole thing is preposterous, but it’s not something to be taken lightly. We are in a very uncertain time.’’

The coalition behind the lawsuits says it is nonpartisan, and it includes David Boies, who represented former vice president Al Gore in the contested 2000 presidential election.

Victoria McGrane