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Editorial
Deval Patrick for governorOct. 31, 2006 Deval Patrick is good for Massachusetts. Few candidates have worked harder, from the ground up, in their effort to win the governorship. Hard work and determination alone are not enough to qualify a person for the state’s highest office, but they are qualities a good governor needs. And Patrick has far more than good work habits.
He would bring to the governorship a range of experience that has allowed him to crisscross the state and make connections to people from all walks of life, people looking for a change of culture on Beacon Hill. Patrick doesn’t need this job; he’s been hugely successful in the private sector. As someone who’s worked in the top echelon at Texaco and Coca Cola, he could write his own ticket to a gold-plated job. But Patrick has a fervor that drives his quest for public office and clearly registers with voters. He has raised his family in Massachusetts and thinks we can do better. Regardless of their incomes, when he went “to the people where they are,” in his words, they told him jobs, housing and transportation were the main issues. He intends to focus on those and on education. The main criticism is that Patrick is fuzzy on the numbers when it comes to advocating for more local aid, repaired roads and bridges, better education and other improvements at the state level. But his forecasts are as good as any candidate’s. While budget-writing is an important part of the executive branch, the governor is not supposed to sound like an accountant. More troubling is that Patrick has not yet been besieged by members of his own party who control the Legislature. A flock without a shepherd for 16 years, they are drooling at the prospect of a Democratic governor who can carry out their agenda. This is where Patrick will be tested. He doesn’t like earmarks - those special favors tucked into the budget that add up to multimillions in extra spending - and wants to cut them out. To that, legislators will just laugh. Patrick will have to show the mettle to prove who’s boss. We think he can do that. He must realize that in the partnership he wants with legislators there can be only one senior partner. Kerry Healey was a good, hands-on lieutenant governor in a largely successful administration who then turned into a different person as gubernatorial candidate. Bright, hard-working and with a sound knowledge of state government, she detoured down a negative path on the campaign road. Her vicious personal attacks on Patrick ignored his 30 years of success in the private and public sector. She played the Willie Horton card at a time when crime was soaring on her and Mitt Romney’s watch. The new Healey showed a persona the public disdained. She has done herself a disservice and perhaps cancelled her political future. Mitt Romney came to the governor’s office as a new face selling management skills and did a fine job for three years. Then he hit the road. Deval Patrick is a new face but from a very different background. A man who began life in a gritty Chicago public housing project and found his future at Milton Academy, he understands “quality of life” better than most of us. Now he wants to help fellow citizens have a better quality of life. The Patriot Ledger endorses Deval Patrick for governor.
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