I have listened to the debates so far and two things are clear: first, Charlie Baker would be bad. And second, Tim Cahill would be equally bad.
Keep in mind that I am the same guy who has spent nearly three years arguing with the governor — in person and in these pages — that his advocacy for gambling in the state violated everything that the party supposedly believes in. In fact, the state party’s official position, as voted in convention in 2009, is to oppose slot machines, whether at racinos or in the absurdly named “resort” casinos.
Nonetheless, despite our differences, I have to acknowledge that the governor held the line on the no-bid contracts for private business owners. And despite what some people may think there are many other issues that I care about. Promoting education at all levels and in all forms. Developing green energy and insulating our leaky homes. Building strong and sustainable local economies with excellent transportation. Bringing a reasonable and humane approach to immigration. And on these points, the governor and I strongly agree.
What I most liked about Deval Patrick when he ran in 2006 — in addition to his character and personality — was that he articulated three strong principles for governing. They were :
1) no financial gimmicks
2) real long-term solutions to real long-term problems
3) we are all in this together.
Candidate Patrick articulated these values and Governor Patrick has lived by them. They are the values we both want and need.
These are not the principles that are guiding Charlie Baker and Tim Cahill. Baker was one of the kings of financial gimmicks under Bill Weld. He backed up the ridiculous cost predictions that Weld made for the Big Dig. I once debated Baker when I was running for lieutenant governor and he was a surrogate for Weld. He basically said that health care access was not a problem in Massachusetts and if it were, it should be left to the marketplace to solve. At the time there were more than 400,000 who did not have insurance.
Tim Cahill wants to be governor and doesn’t quite care what message will get him there. I am sure that someone handed him a poll that said “talk about fiscal responsibility” and he has been stuck on that message — whatever he takes it to mean — for months.
What is particularly disturbing is the demagoguery of both of these candidates on taxes. Listening to them you would think that teachers don’t need salaries, roads fix themselves, communities can print money, and — above all — citizens can enjoy all the benefits of a decent and well-run society for free. It’s a nice fantasy, but that’s all it is: a fantasy.
Deval Patrick has been a thoughtful, calm, clear-headed leader for nearly four years. We need him for another four. And we may not get that unless everyone reading this post goes on www.devalpatrick.com and gets busy as a volunteer.
When people from out of state asked me how “Massachusetts, as a such a Democratic state, could have elected Scott Brown” I pointed out that for 16 of the last 20 years — 80% of the last two decades — we had Republican governors. While they were in charge, they had a chance to implement their policies, when they weren’t looking for other jobs like ambassador or president. It didn’t work. They set up the same recipes for failure in Massachusetts that we have experienced nationally.
Let’s not make the same mistakes we have made over and over again. It’s time for you to stop hoping someone else will do something. Whatever bellyaching we are hearing now will quadruple if one of these other candidates is elected.
We need Deval Patrick. And right now — for the next 49 days — he needs us.
Bob Massie
Somerville
Let’s see that 2006/2008 energy again!
I feel the same way – however much I disagree with the Governor on casinos, and a few other more minor issues, he is the best thing to happen to this state since, well, decades. A TRUTH teller in government. Someone who wants to actually GOVERN. Who’d have thunk?
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p>Whatever missteps – many of them drummed up by a bored media – whatever disagreements, he’s doing a lot of good, and our economy, our infrastructure, our schools, our cities and towns, and our quality of life as citizens has gotten better. We have weathered bad times better, and we have made progress in a backsliding situation of Republican incompetence. That is amazing. Imagine what we can do if we finish what we’ve started.
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p>Hell, we have a Governor RUNNING FOR REELECTION! How freaking great is THAT finally??
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p>If you’re fired up, ready to go, the Gov will be in Lowell at the Tsongas campaign HQ (17 Kirk St, 11am) for a unity rally after a contentious state Senate primary here, and then there’s going to be a local canvass. Come on down, and work it! This Governor can’t elect himself after all.
THIS year I am supporting a five person household by self employment, and the lowest paid legal work – family law for the middle and working class, and court appointed child welfare law for the indigent…with no staff.
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p>I am not only usually working to 10 PM or later, working 3 out of four weekend days doing billing, child home visits, etc., but always tired.
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p>We also have zero money, nearly, to donate. A $25.00 donation from us these days shows you wowed our household.
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p>Enthusiasm is a lot harder to summon when tired.
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p>Further, the treatment of the Fernald families, the lack of support for the independent child welfare bar, and the self employed bar advocate leaves me feeling sad – and has made my closest “war buddies” in the trenches of democracy fighting for children and families and the rule of law (remember “innocent until proven guilty”?) feel abandoned, and unsupported – and not willing to fork over time and energy.
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p>Laying off 3000 state employees, and silently using contractors doesn’t sit too well, either.
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p>Yes, there is a Democratic Governor – but … the spread between hope and reality sometimes feels like the Grand Canyon – and Deval Patrick has my vote, and the other four votes in this household, but the happy warrior joy isn’t there and if I figure out how to find it, I will let you know.
I had never worked harder for a candidate than I did for Deval, and after most of the candidates I had supported lost (from would be city councilors to Howard Dean), it was great to finally win one. All the skills I learned on that campaign I took to the Duckworth and Obama campaigns in college. That campaign made me a doorknocking, grassroots pro. That said, Governor Patrick and candidate Patrick could not be further apart. I have made my gripes known elsewhere. Unlike Obama, who I feel has tried to live up to his principles but has been sideswiped by the ineptitude and inertia of both parties in Washington, Patrick on casinos, on cape wind, on education, on the environment, and on a host of issues near and dear to progressives has left his at the door. This was deliberate, not the consequence of governing. With a near permanent, Democratic supermajority, we could have had a lot of great ideas passed. DINOs and hacks that didn’t work with the Governor could have been primaried by the extensive grassroots network Deval decided to let die rather than utilize. Let me be clear though there are no credible alternatives.
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p>But Charlie Baker would be a disaster. I initially was intrigued by his candidacy and his intriguing ‘progressive conservative’ solutions to issues. Yet instead of running on his stellar record as a CEO, instead of running on his record of social tolerance and fiscal conservatism, he has tried to be who he isn’t. Instead of running as the wonks wonk, he has tried to be a populist conservative. There is little authentic about his candidacy other than his egotistical desire to win at all costs. He has flirted with bigoted candidates like Hudak who buy into far right conspiracy theories, he has failed to stop his own party from bullying its first openly gay lt. gov nominee, and he has failed to be a credible advocate for his own policies. Rather than find a third way between the two, Tim Cahill has alternated between the hacks hack and the far rights Tea Party choice. He has callously and cynically flip flopped on aborion, gay rights, and Sarah Palin.
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p>No great choices. Deval offers stability, at least a lukewarm commitment to progressive values, and most importantly a solid record of fiscal stewardship during tough times. Deval also has a great team that will join him statewide. Murray, Grossman, and Bump all will do great jobs in their respective offices and all are easily great candidates for higher office in the future. Jill Stein is the only genuine progressive in the race, but if the polls are close the stakes are too high for a protest vote. We cannot afford four years of Baker or Cahill. We can definitely live with four years of Deval. Thats the choice.
…got most of my 50.
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p>Long time readers of BMG might have heard this rant of mine before. It goes back to the ’04 race, though its genesis lies in the the ’94 Republican takeover. The central thesis goes thusly: no amount of rationality can explain an essentially irrational process. Or, to put it in a way you might understand, however much I might, or might not CARE (whatever it is you think you mean by that…) won’t stop people from voting for Scott Brown, or Sarah Palin or anybody who labels themselves ‘tea party’ or Republican or what have you.
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p>Scott Brown remains the non-entity he was the day the people elected him. He’s acted, as a Senator, in much the same way he campaigned for the job: as a dilatory pretty boy sans clue. There’s no particular reason to praise him, or to condemn him as he’s failed to demonstrated that he either has a core or, if so, is in touch with it…. There was, in short, no particular reason to vote for him.
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p>And, since there was no particular reason to vote for him… yet he received a sizable number of votes… indeed a majority…
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p>Ipso facto, ad infinitum, et nauseam, quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur….
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p>… Those who voted for him, therefore did so from particularly irrational motives.
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p>Republicans have been doing this since Reagan. Chose a particularly light-weight non-entity to run behind and flood the airwaves with increasingly strident emotionalism and histrionics in order to get people angry. The only real defense, which is no defense at all, is to point out, to the angry irrational dolts who are voting, that they are, in fact and deed, angry and irrational dolts. For some reason doing just that seems to A) make them angrier and 2) more likely, strangely enough, to double down on their irrational behavior as a way of saying “F**K all y’all”.
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