As I write this column, the news that Gov. Charlie Baker will not seek election is a week old, but the political turmoil the announcement has created is just starting.

Pundits, both amateur and professional, have been trying to read the tea leaves for months. Every comment Baker has made has been analyzed over and under. Will he or won’t he?

There is a lot at stake here for a number of people, including you and me.

There are three Democrats traveling all over the state trying to build a base to win that party’s nomination for governor. There is one Republican who announced he would challenge Baker.

The conventional wisdom is none of the Dems would have a chance against one of the country’s most popular governors. The candidate carrying the Democratic flag would be a sacrifice.

Conventional wisdom also told us that Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito would have run if Baker had not. Now, we know she is not interested in the job. Frankly that surprised me much more than Baker not deciding to run again.

The conventional wisdom also dictates that former state Sen. Geoff Diehl wouldn’t come out of a primary fight the victor. Although Diehl likes to point to the number of voters who supported him in his race against Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he does not have a campaign or image that would entice moderate crossover voters.

Some folks have been waiting for Attorney General Maura Healey to announce her intentions to seek the Democratic nomination. The speculation is that Healey versus Baker would have been a political fight about the size of King Kong fighting Godzilla.

And, no, I would have not predicted a winner in that fight.

Earlier in the year when Healey turned up in Springfield to help plant a tree in a park, I was among the many people who saw such an action as simply something to help establish a political base. By the way, the better way to do that would have been to actually attempt to find out our needs through conversation than employ such a useless and transparent political chestnut.

Now perhaps in the lag between my writing this column and you reading it, other candidates have emerged. Perhaps Healey has made an announcement.

How much of a surprise was Baker’s announcement? Well, it was news apparently to the organizers of a fundraiser for Baker and Polito scheduled in two weeks on Dec. 14 at The Student Prince in Springfield. The amount of support Baker/Polito had earned is evident in the tone of the invitation: “With an impeding re-election decision soon forthcoming, we want to pack the Fort in a show of deep-rooted, Western Mass. support for this dynamic duo. Four more years is the mantra! – let’s keep the pedal to the metal and the momentum rolling!”

Baker has an interesting legacy – yes, I know his term is not over. He has been seen as a classic Massachusetts Republican and someone who rejected the right-wing rhetoric of Trump. He has sought to work with Democrats but isn’t afraid to butt heads with them.

He has also been an outsider to his own party under Trump. There is something so very odd about a Republican governor whose support crosses party lines but whose own party leadership does not embrace him, but that is the Trump factor, isn’t it?

Former Springfield City Councilor Tim Rooke was an early supporter in 2014. Tim arranged for me to be able to interview Baker during his first campaign and we had a very pleasant talk after a lunch at the Munich Haus in Chicopee.

Tim offered these comments to me the morning the decision was made: “What attracted me to candidate Baker/Polito ticket in 2014 was their willingness to be pragmatic in their governance approach – their willingness to reach across the aisle to work on issues and accomplish things. That’s leadership!

“I was one of the first elected Democrats to publicly endorse him. Luckily he won. We often joked about that. LOL.

“They are friends to many and I am very fortunate to be considered one of them.”

So, as a political junkie I have to say this next gubernatorial election has become far more interesting.