Certainly no one is entitled to the Democratic nomination or to re-election, and I think the Governor would be the first to acknowledge that. This will be a hard-fought campaign, as it should be.
I work for the executive branch (not the Governor’s Office, though) in my day job, so I certainly concede that you can take my views with a grain of salt. However, this thread prompted me to write because I am ready to go out and volunteer for the Governor, not just as a dutiful warrior, but as an active and engaged participant. This isn’t a perspective I have seen in some of the recent threads so I wanted to share my view of the Patrick Administration and why I think it’s important that we re-elect the Governor.
Bottom line, Deval has governed MA better through the recession than most states, hard as it may be to believe in these economic times. We have had on-time budgets, maintained a strong bond rating, and been able to make proactive investments throughout the whole time (large housing and environmental bond bills, for instance). While MA has not been spared cuts, on two occasions in recent months when there was an unexpected windfall for state government tax coffers (rare in these economic times), the Governor immediately used the money to restore cuts made to social programs.
When the Governor was first inaugurated, ironically, one of the criticisms made was that he was not getting out in the press enough and spending too much time holed up in his office reading the budget. While it is certainly true that part of being a politician is getting your message out, there is something refreshing about the fact that we have a Governor (after sixteen years of GOP neglect) who actually reads the budget line by line, who calls his staff late at night with questions, and who is deeply invested in how the Commonwealth is doing. The very fact that we have a Governor who cares enough to stick around and run for re-election despite the bad economy and difficult political situation is a stark departure from what came before.
Deval has not just been a manager, but has governed with an eye for the future and long-term job growth. The Administration has brought Cape Wind closer to completion than ever before, supported transit expansion projects (including purchasing the CSX tracks that will allow for rail to Fall River and New Bedford and more trains between Boston and Worcester), passed municipal partnership laws that increase the ways that cities and towns can raise revenue, closed corporate tax loopholes, and closed some of the most egregious pension loopholes. The Patrick Administration created a Neighborhood Stabilization Fund to help communities deal with foreclosed properties before it ever happened on the federal level, and has passed increased foreclosure consumer protection laws. On GLBT issues, Deval has been the most pro-equality Governor we’ve ever had by far — campaigning actively to keep the constitutional anti-gay amendment off the ballot, signing the 1913 law repeal, actively supporting the transgender equality bill, and being the first sitting Governor to ever march in a Pride parade and openly and proudly declare that he has GLBT family members.
I’m already going on too long, but I do feel very strongly that the Governor deserves to be re-elected and should have active support. I guess the final point that struck me about the whole discussion is that often when I speak to Democrats who are not enthusiastic about Deval’s re-election, they have one or two specific issues that they zero in on. Sometimes, I agree with them — I certainly don’t think every single decision Deval has made has been right. Sometimes, I disagree and sometimes I’m not sure and the person knows far more about the issue then I do. I’m not trying to make the claim that Deval has been a perfect Governor but rather that OVERALL (not necessarily on every single issue) he has been a strong, progressive Governor — stronger than he’s often given credit for in the media. I maintain that we’ve been lucky to have an engaged, focused, Democratic leader who is deeply invested in the future of Massachusetts, and while it’s a decision that’s up to everyone, I hope many Democrats will decide to make his re-election a priority.
Anyway, that was long, but thanks for listening!
Patrick, I think this is a fairly well-reasoned and -written piece, worthy of careful consideration.
or is it hear, hear!?
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p>I’ve never really figured that one out… in any event, your judgment is sound and your points are right.
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p>It is “hear, hear”, as parliamentary shorthand for “Hear him. Hear him,” the long used exhortation to both listen and STFU in the House of Commons as well as a exclamation of agreement that doesn’t fall afoul of the normally staid HoC rules against applause.
Think of it this way: “Listen! Listen!”
One of the most outstanding things that I also noted when doing my campaign homework is the amount of investment the Commonwealth has been able to make in green energy and technology-based jobs, and supporting small businesses. I especially like the small business tax incentive the Governor has proposed to incentivize hiring by small businesses.
Well said, sir. It’s more than just “give a guy a break”.
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p>The Governor has worked hard on some issues that are not simply keys to popularity. His term thus far has been more than running for re-election – it’s been about trying to make some headway, and turn around some of the previous 16 years of Republican gubernatorial hay-making.
I’ll be casting a vote for the Governor at the convention and working for his reelection.
Some other things I think worth pointing out…
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Health care. While our universal health care law did not originate during Deval’s term, implementation matters hugely and the Patrick Administration has worked hard to keep the difficult patchwork of the universal health care law together and continue to expand coverage and tackle affordability. His appointments– John Auerbach, several members of the Board of Public Health — have been excellent and spent much more time focusing on quality and cost control than the previous Administration (with help from the Legislature and many advocacy groups). Keep in mind that Governor Dukakis signed a universal health care law in 1990, only to see it quickly dismantled by Bill Weld. Having a successor committed to fairly implementing big social program expansions is critical, and Deval has been that successor.<
p>-Stimulus spending. Deval was one of a small group of governors who was on the phone with the White House and spent time publicly and privately pressuring the Obama Administration for more stimulus money dedicated to education and infrastructure and less to tax cuts. Since the stimulus money began flowing, MA has consistently been a national leader in percentage of stimulus money flowing to transit projects, as opposed to highway expansion.
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Governor of the whole state. Deval set up a western MA office, has focused a lot of time and energy on supporting muchneeded broadband development in western MA, and has worked with the federal government and neighboring state governments to support future rail development along the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield-Northampton-Greenfield corridor.<
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Oceans bill passed– one of the first comprehensive plans in the nation for the future of ocean conservation and responsible energy development.<
p>Obviously, the Legislature and outside advocates played a role in all of these accomplishments, but Deval and his administration were key in making all of them happen. In addition, I’m hoping that we’ll see more accomplishments in 2010 including new tax credit transparency legislation, passage of the transgender equality bill, same-day voter registration, and CORI reform.
Certainly didn’t mean to block out pieces of the post!
There’s a short-cut for strike through (instead of using [del] and [/del] tags) that involves dashes. So be careful about using dashes to set off list items, since you may inadvertently end up crossing out part of your post.
I’ve been really impressed with the consolidation of transportation agencies. This is a logical, non-partisan, good-government reorganization that encourages efficiency and transparency. It promotes long-term savings and effectiveness in state government, which make it hard to use for political advantage. And there are political down-sides, like the loss of appointed positions ripe for patronage.
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p>Similarly, the flagmen/police-detail shift wasn’t especially popular, but it’s good public policy. Every other state uses a mix of flagmen and police – we were the only state requiring police details for road construction sites. This hurt Governor Patrick with the police unions, but he went through with it anyway because it was the right thing to do.
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p>Like Patrick, I don’t agree with everything that the Governor has done, but overall I’m an enthusiastic supporter and have already started working to getting him re-elected in November.
The “g” in “governor” is lower-case, unless you specify “Governor Deval Patrick” or “Governor Patrick.”
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p>The “g” and “o” in “governor’s office” is always lower-case; there is no proper way to use the words “governor’s office” and have the “o” in “office” be upper-case.
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p>The “c” in “commonwealth” is lower case, unless you’re specifying the commonwealth, such as the “Commonwealth of Kentucky,” the “Commonwealth of Virginia,” the “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” or the “Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
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p>As to your justifications for the governor’s re-election, let’s be kind and acknowledge that he has had to contend with a moonbat contingent, one that puts idological purity or insanity ahead of sound public policy.
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p>That you’re employed in the executive branch of state government is a perfect example of how disastrous the governor’s staffing procedures have become.
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p>A governor who understands how to enact sound public policy initiatives employs staff who are street-smart and versed in crafting coalitions. I will vote for Patrick despite knowing that he is not qualified to be governor, as I cannot vote for a Republican or a Democrat-turned-Independent.
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p>But as long as the moonbats on Dem left keep trying to drive the governor hard-left, the middle becomes more receptive to entreaties from Charlie Baker and Tim Cahill. The naive and politically unschooled that blog incessantly on this website — the moralists and other finger-wavers — should take a course in coalition building.
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p>Of course, they’d do my Dem party well if they’d just form a moonbat party and stop inflicting themselves on us normal Dems.