Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker said Thursday that he could not blame Arizona for enacting a law cracking down on illegal immigrants that has sparked controversy nationwide. 'Arizona is a border state, living with the failure of the federal government to do the job of securing their border,' Baker said in an online chat on Boston.com. 'I don't blame them for taking this issue on directly,' he said. Baker also lamented that a measure in the Massachusetts Senate toughening laws against illegal immigration never made it into the final state budget for this year. Lawmakers watered down the language before sending the budget to Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, to sign. 'The Senate passed common-sense immigration reforms as part of the most recent state budget, led by, among others, my running mate, Senator Richard Tisei. I was very sorry the governor didn't support these reforms, but I'm not surprised,' he wrote. 'We are now back to square one on this issue. That's a shame.' The Arizona law, passed in April, is the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants. It requires police to ask people for proof of their legal status when they stop them for another reason and have a 'reasonable suspicion' they are in the country illegally. The US Justice Department is challenging the law in court. Baker is vying to unseat Patrick in November. State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill is running as an independent, and Jill Stein is running as the Green-Rainbow candidate. Thursday's chat touched on everything from Baker's positions on taxes, pensions for elected officials, and LeBron James, to whether he felt excesses by Republican activists elsewhere would reflect negatively on his campaign. One reader asked the Harvard-educated former health care executive, 'Have you ever had to struggle? Have you ever been unemployed?' Baker said he had been working 'since I was a kid ... paper routes, gas station attendant.' Baker also said he has worked in landscaping, on a loading dock, and as a sports reporter and movie theater usher. 'I've had times in my life when I was younger where I haven't been doing what I wanted to be doing for work, but I always managed to find something to do to pay the bills,' he said. 'And I sure struggled to turn around Harvard Pilgrim,' he added. 'At the time, most people thought we would fail, and the jobs and livelihoods of my employees and their families were very much on the line, and I felt the pressure of that, big time. I'm glad we found a way to make it work.' 