Deval Patrick |
Progressive and reform-minded voters have two excellent choices in next week’s Democratic primary for governor: Chris Gabrieli and Deval Patrick. Each would offer voters clear and welcome choices in the final election against Republican Kerry Healey and Independent Christy Mihos. And both Gabrieli and Patrick hold the promise of serving with distinction should either win the final vote in November. But now that the choice is only days away, we urge voters to cast their ballots for Deval Patrick.
If political campaigns foreshadow how candidates would govern, then Patrick would be ambitious and energetic, principled and focused. He began his race for the Democratic slot on the November ballot as a long-shot outsider, someone who had the guts to challenge the go-along-to-get-along elements of the party who were — and are — more interested in patronage and spoils than in ideas and change.
Patrick beat the so-called wise guys, the insiders, at their own game: first by dominating the statewide caucuses and then by winning the state convention. If he is able to win Tuesday’s primary, as we hope he will, his victory will go a long way toward demonstrating to the people of Massachusetts that it’s time to terminate the 16-year lease the Republicans have held on the governor’s office.
With every passing month of lame-duck Republican Mitt Romney’s continued rule, Massachusetts sinks deeper and deeper into political torpor: roads and bridges fall into greater disrepair, the education system begs for an infusion of energy, population migrates elsewhere, and economic development suffers. It’s time to get Massachusetts moving again, to re-harness its brainpower, to realize its potential.
For too many years, politics in Massachusetts has been a blame-game. The horizons have been low and ambitions have been even lower. Patrick promises to try to change that. It’s a tall order, for sure. And he can’t do it alone. But betting on Patrick is a wager worth making. He has a concept of public service that is ennobling. In today’s shallow and cynical world, that may sound corny. But locally — as well as nationally — politics and government could benefit from a renewed sense of idealism and purpose.
As impressive as the technical virtuosity of the Patrick campaign is, it is by inspiring people from different walks of life and from disparate corners of the state to re-engage in public life that the campaign is accomplishing its goals and hitting its targets. A key reason, perhaps the key reason, the Phoenix is urging a vote for Patrick is that we hope, we believe, his ability to build a statewide coalition for change will resonate on Beacon Hill and translate into quantifiable, bankable policies.
The truth of the matter is that a Democratic state legislature may be better than a Republican one, but the track record of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts is, to put it politely, heartbreaking; to put it more graphically, it is piss poor.
If a Democratic governor is going to gain the trust of suburban independents who fear the prospect of hacks run amok, he’s not only going to have to lead public opinion, he’s going to have to tangle with the legislature. And that will be a formidable test of political will and imagination.
Deval Patrick may be a guy from the Chicago housing projects who made good on scholarships at Milton Academy, Harvard, and Harvard Law. But he had to have more than fire in his belly to make his mark as a Clinton-era assistant attorney general and a top corporate lawyer. He had to have tenacity and a taste for political combat.
We believe that Patrick has the brains and the temperament, the drive and determination to make politics matter for the better in Massachusetts and — in the process — to make Massachusetts a better place to live. Patrick’s promise is our hope. That’s why the Phoenix urges you to vote in the Democratic primary for Deval Patrick for governor.
For lieutenant governor: Deb Goldberg
Just as Massachusetts is blessed to have two solid choices for a reform-style governor, so it has two strong candidates for the state’s second-highest-ranking job: Worcester mayor Timothy Murray and former Brookline selectwoman Deborah Goldberg.
The Phoenix thinks Goldberg would bring the most to her party’s ticket and the most to the state and urges voters to cast their ballot for her in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Goldberg is as knowledgeable as she is impassioned. Brookline may have a town-style government, but with its population density it faces city-size problems. Solving those problems is solid training ground for any higher office, but especially so for a job that, in recent tradition, has coordinated state and local affairs for the governor.
From public transportation and education to stem-cell research and environmental issues, Goldberg has thought about what matters to the future of the state and developed programs and policies that should inform any Democratic governor.
