Crossposted at Keeping Massachusetts Blue
Over the last several months I have really been struggling on whether to actively support Governor Deval Patrick’s effort for reelection in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. It’s not that I didn’t believe that the Governor is a solid progressive, or that he didn’t support initiatives that safeguarded Massachusetts’ reputation as having the country’s most advanced social welfare system. I was disappointed in his inability to stand up to the legislature when they either through inertia, misguided loyalties, or backward ideology created and imposed policies that were blatantly contradictory to his positions. This was further exacerbated I believe, by Patrick at times taking politically convenient positions such as terminating Commonwealth Care coverage for legal immigrants or raising health care premiums on thousands of working families in Massachusetts.
Deval Patrick however deserves praise on having to make very difficult decisions during the worst recession to hit the commonwealth in century. His commitment to transportation reform, ethics reform, CORI reform and attempting to come up with ways to create new revenue streams to ease cuts in essential services to the most vulnerable citizens in within the Commonwealth has set him apart from the typical Bacon Hill self preservation society, better known as the legislature. It is for these reasons that I have created a blog, a meetup group and will actively work to get Deval reelected. This will not be easy, misinformation from his detractors is catching on with the media and thus weighing heavy on the Governor’s poll numbers. Yet today we see signs that with the Governor’s leadership, Massachusetts is set to come out of this recession stronger than ever. It is true that these indicationsare tenuous at best, which why it is imperative to avoid returning to the destructive policies of the Romney administration. I do believe that with hard work and a commitment to move the Commonwealth forward Together We Will Keep Massachusetts Blue.
