Beginning a transition effort, Governor-elect Charlie Baker on Wednesday met with Gov. Deval Patrick, who during the just-ended campaign repeatedly said Baker had an "authenticity problem" and backed Attorney General Martha Coakley in the race to succeed him.

Patrick and Baker met for over half an hour in the Corner Office to discuss the transition, one of Baker's first stops after claiming victory early Wednesday morning over Democrat Martha Coakley.

In the press conference that followed, both men sought to put the race behind them and pledged a "smooth" transition process.

"Campaign's over," Patrick said, standing next to Baker after a reporter noted Patrick's campaign trail criticisms of Baker, a Swampscott Republican.

"Is it just politics?" the reporter asked.

"The campaign's over," Patrick, a Milton Democrat, repeated. "We're looking ahead."

Baker, echoing Patrick later in the press conference, said, "Campaign's over. I mean, this is about moving the state forward."

Baker, who ran on bringing balance to a Democrat-dominated state government, said one of the messages from the election is "people for the most part want their government to behave in a bipartisan way."

"I think the fact that it was such a close race speaks to the sort of nature of the electorate overall, which is that for the most part we have an electorate that sits on both sides of the fence, but in the end what they're going to expect out of a new administration is that we work collaboratively, across the aisle, and... get stuff done," Baker said.

The comments came two days after Democrats rallied behind Coakley in a bid to maintain Democrats' hold on the executive office, where Patrick joked about Baker's story about a fisherman that brought the candidate to tears during the last debate. "I have said many times, you don't have to hate Republicans to be a good Democrat. But I feel like kicking a little Republican ass right now," Patrick said at a rally inside Coakley's campaign headquarters on Monday night.

During the race, the Baker campaign had knocked Patrick as a "good partisan soldier" who was delivering the Coakley camp's "negative and misleading talking points," while also taking aim at some of the management lapses in government that occurred on Patrick's watch.

Asked if the fact that voters chose a Republican to succeed him reflected negatively on his eight-year tenure, Patrick said, "I think it says he got more votes than the Democratic nominee and he won the election."

Baker won after a "wild ride of a night," Patrick added.

"There were ups and downs and emotions that went with those ups and downs in Martha Coakley's suite and I learned today, not surprisingly, there were emotions during the ups and downs for Charlie and his family in his suite," Patrick told reporters. "I think you will all be analyzing what the election means in some larger sense, I think, for a long time. But from my perspective it means we have a new governor coming in in January."