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. . . . . . . . . . . . News, notes and
ideas for Williamstown and the Greylock region
About 40 party stalwarts hear Deval Patrick’s rationale
for electing him first Democratic governor in 16 years;
he cites Berkshire connections in 20-minute talk
Posted by Bill Densmore at 3:30 p.m. on May 21, 2005
By Bill Densmore
NORTH ADAMS, Mass., May 21, 2005 -- Corporate and
civil-rights attorney Deval Patrick, calling himself an embodiment of an
American dream that many people fear is being lost, opened his Democratic
primary campaign for Massachusetts governor in Berkshire County today with an
hour-long stop at the Steeples Restaurant in North Adams. A room full of about
40 people -- mostly regional party stalwarts, greeted him.
"I am interested in doing this job because I see
there is something that needs to be done," said Patrick. "Not because
I want to launch a career in political office . . . this is not my stepping
stone . . . what I am interested in offering is an attitude to citizens, an
attitude of optimism and hopefulness."
Patrick, the top federal civil-rights enforcement
officer in the Clinton administration and former chief counsel to The Coca-Cola
Co., announced his candidacy April 14 in the Democratic gubernatorial primary
next year to decided which Democrat will seek to replace Gov. Mitt Romney, a
Republican. Massachusetts, with an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature,
hasn't had a Democratic governor in 16 years. Patrick, already endorsed by U.S.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., faces Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly in
the primary.
Patrick has at least two Berkshire County connections.
First, after law school, he was a clerk to Judge Stephen
Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals in California. Reinhardt is the
father of Mark Reinhardt, political-science professor at Williams College.
Appeals-court clerkships are considered to be prestigious assignments for
freshly minted attorneys. And second, Patrick said his family is building a
second home in Richmond. Second, he said his family is building a second home
in Richmond, next to Pittsfield.
Patrick, 48, was raised on Chicago's South Side, a
couple of miles from the University of Chicago. His campaign-supplied biography
notes that his family was on welfare for some of that period. He gained a
scholarship to the prestigious prep school Milton Academy, outside Boston, at
age 14, and went on to graduate from Harvard College and its law school. In
private practice in Boston he initially did poverty law and civil-rights work,
and was tapped
by President Clinton in 1994 to be assistant attorney general for civil
rights. Since leaving government, he worked at Texaco Corp. on civil-rights
matters and a major merger with Chevron, and served several years as general
counsel of The Coca-Cola Co. He is married with two daughters and now lives in
Milton.
Mark Reinhardt introduced Patrick to the audience. He
said a few months ago nobody he talked to knew who Deval Patrick was.
"It's only a couple of months later and nobody is asking me that
now," he said.
Patrick called judge Reinhardt "a wonderful,
wonderful man . . . who had, and continues to have, a profound affect on my
life and my thinking and my career."
Patrick said professional campaign advisors have been
telling him to take a poll. He said he decided to tour the state and find out
from people directly. "I want you
to understand the respect that I have for the ideas, the good, common-sense
ideas that are alive and at large everywhere in Massachusetts."
One of the biggest things he is hearing about, said
Patrick, is "the whole breakdown in the sense of community." When he
was a young boy, he recalls, he lived on a street west of the University of
Chicago and Jackson Park where no one had much money. "But there was an
old model of a community," he recalled. "It was also a time when
every child was under the supervision of every adult on the block."
When Patrick arrived at Milton Academy at age 14 on a
scholarship from the A Better Chance
program, he said he learned about a different kind of community. In that
"radically different community" populated by youths of power and
privilege, he learned those kids could be just as frightened as he was.
"But there were adults there who took an interest. There was that old model
of a community."
Experiencing a lost American dream?
"What I have experienced in America, frankly, is
the American dream," said Patrick. "[But] I am struck by how we are
losing faith, a sense of willingness to believe, that there is a way to get a
toehold and move up . . .I am talking about people from all kinds of places who
are just not convinced there is a way forward in Massachusetts or anywhere
anymore or that government has a role or responsibility for helping people to
help themselves."
Patrick said the three issues which Massachusetts
voters tell him they're concerned about are job creation (and the strength of
the private economy), quality of education, and health care. Next-tier issues
include environmental stewardship, transportation and affordable housing. On
job creation, Patrick paid a compliment to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, saying
Romney has it right understanding the governor's office as the chief salesman
for the state's business environment.” But he has been going all over America
making fun of his office and the people he serves," asserted Patrick.
On education, Patrick ticked off more support for
early childhood education, options for all-day kindergarten, smaller class
sizes and longer school days as priorities. School which ends at 2:30 p.m. or 3
p.m. is a vestige of an agrarian economy, when farm chores had to be done in
the afternoon. "It doesn't make
sense in a modern economy," he said. "We have to put that on the
table." The tax-limiting Proposition 2-1/2 may be obsolete, he said, but
he said he is not sure just eliminating it is the answer. He also said he was
not sure the so-called MCAS tests, (standardized tests taken by all of the
state's children at certain ages) "are all that it takes to measure
educational quality."
On taxes, Patrick scored the property tax as
regressive. He said he wouldn’t take a no-tax pledge, even though he said
advisors call that position "political suicide." He said the public
has to understand the relationship between taxes and services which government
provides.
"I am not going to take a no take pledge,"
he said. "I think that is a silly game . . . but I am not looking to raise
taxes. I am looking for an ambitious agenda and I think we owe it to the people
of Massachusetts to do that within the resources that we have now."
He blamed cutbacks in state aid to education -- and a
resulting rise in local property taxes -- on
income-tax cuts promoted by Romney. He said property taxes put a
disproportionate burden on people with fixed incomes because the tax does not
scale to rises or decreases in income.
"So, our revenue sources are out of whack and
that has to be fixed," Patrick said. "That is viewed by the political
advisors that I talk to as political suicide. But it is the truth. And you know
it is the truth."
He continued: "I'm all for a tax cut when we can
afford one. And by the way, I can give you a tax cut. I have a way to give you
a tax cut -- dig your own latrine. Put out your own fire. Build your own road.
Build your own schools." ....
There is a connection between what you pay and what you get . . . If we don't
want the government to do anything, you can keep your money . . . because it
will also be your broken road, and your broken school and your broken
neighborhood and frankly your broken neighbor. And frankly what we have to
start asking is who is responsible for that."
Public disgust with “screaming heads”
Aside from policy issues, Patrick said he hears
something else from the state's voters -- many are disappointed and disgusted
with politics. "They think of two heads screaming at each other, points
scored and gamesmanship," he said. "People are giving up. They're
checking out on politics and public life. And that is not just a threat to
citizenship. It is a threat to democracy . . . If people are giving up, then
small wonder that the cynics who govern us in Massachusetts and in Washington
are in charge."
There is a lesson for partisan Democrats, Patrick
says. "We have been checking out and saying it doesn't really matter, or
that as Democrats we ought to put up someone enough like the Republications
that nobody will be aroused," he said. "I am telling you that
strategy has not worked, does not work and maybe we ought to learn a
lesson."
In response to a question, Patrick acknowledged that
one barrier to electing a Democratic governor will be a perception among some
voters that it is good to have a counterweight in the corner office on Beacon
Hill to a Democrat-controlled legislature. "It is a compelling argument to
a lot of people. I think that is compelling," Patrick acknowledged.
"I do think any Democrat will face a little bit of that this time
around." But, he added: "I think and act independently and I have
throughout my professional life." He said he had met with legislative
leaders and, "I think we are convinced we can work well together. I think
we are also convinced we are not going to agree on everything." He said
lawmakers want a partner as governor who will credit them when things are going
well and will "provide air cover when it doesn't."
Asked why he thinks the state is losing population,
Patrick said it’s partly because of an acute shortage of affordable housing in
eastern Massachusetts. But he said it's also a lack of jobs. Although the last
eight months have seen increases in the number of Massachusetts jobs, he noted,
many of the new jobs do not pay as well as the ones lost. And the state still
has 100,000 fewer jobs than when Romney was elected, he added. "Now, there
are two other reasons I have hard mentioned and they are January and
February," he joked. "But we work with what we have."