TAUNTON - Gov. Charlie Baker said his positions on both South Coast Rail and charter schools are about giving people “options.”

“We wanted to at least give people the opportunity to consider the option of getting something a lot sooner,” Baker said Monday night about the Middleboro rail route in a brief interview at a fundraiser for State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell at the Portuguese American Civic Club on School Street.

Drawing a map in the air as he spoke, Baker said Monday both the Stoughton and Middleboro routes would include trains from Fall River and New Bedford to Taunton.

With the Stoughton route the train would then head north from Taunton to Boston.

With the Middleboro route it would take a jog east from Taunton over to Middleboro and then up to Boston.

With the cost estimates skyrocketing for the Stoughton route and the completion date pushed back to 2030, Baker said he supports at least performing cost estimates on Middleboro and weighing the options.

But officials in Taunton have been adamantly opposed to reviving the Middleboro route - including Mayor Tom Hoye, State. Sen. Marc Pacheco and O’Connell herself.

Both routes pass through Taunton, but with the Middleboro route, it’s a glancing blow – a single stop on the outskirts of the city as opposed to two stops with the Stoughton route, including one a half-mile from downtown, Pacheco said last month.

Hoye has called Middleboro a “zig-zag” route that would be a “kick in the teeth” to Taunton.

At a debate last Thursday with her opponent - Democratic challenger Estele Borges - O’Connell said: “I talk to the governor. I am able to meet with (Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack) and discuss these things. I am going to work as hard as I can to convince them that the Stoughton route is the right way to go, not just for Taunton, though especially for Taunton, but really for the entire region. There will be faster service to Boston. There will be more ridership, and, therefore, more revenue.”

Baker declined to comment Monday on any discussions he’s had with O’Connell about South Coast Rail.

On the issue of charter schools, Baker said studies have shown that charter schools do not harm public schools and he favors them as an “option” for families. He said all the students currently enrolled in charter schools and on waiting lists for charter schools combined only amount to 7 percent of the school-aged children in Massachusetts.

Ballot Question 2 in the Nov. 8 election would lift the cap on the number of charter schools in Massachusetts.

Several students from Bridgewater State University College Republicans also turned out for O’Connell’s “Octoberfest,” which packed the PACC Monday night.

For Kayla Haskins, a 21-year-old senior, this will be the first Presidential election in which she’s old enough to vote and she’s not happy with her options.

“I like the Republican party, but I don’t like Trump,” said Haskins, a Kingston resident.

“Honestly, I don’t like either candidate.”

In Thursday’s debate between O’Connell and Borges, Borges said that O’Connell has trouble getting along with her fellow Republicans and was “demoted” from the powerful “Ways and Means Committee.”

O’Connell did not get into specifics but responded, “I will never sell you out or sit down and shut up just so I can stay on a committee.”

Monday Baker staunchly defended O’Connell.

“That isn’t supported by the record. She’s got a track record that shows she can get along with people and knows how to get things done,” Baker said.