Election campaigns are crucibles: the heat can reveal a candidate’s character in unexpected ways. In recent times few have had their mettle tested as much as Deval Patrick, the Democratic candidate for governor. Patrick has withstood a withering personal assault from his Republican opponent and from a talk-radio political culture that polarizes and demeans. Through it all, the first-time candidate has kept his dignity, refused to be dragged into the mudslinging, and honored the promise he made early on to his supporters to promote ‘‘a new kind of politics’’ — a kind that emphasizes common goals. What that says about Patrick’s character is just as impressive as his high-powered resume, his thoughtful issue positions and his stirring appeal to new voters. We are delighted to endorse his candidacy for governor.
Patrick brings an unusual set of experiences and values to the Massachusetts political landscape, and the state is better for it. He has a solid executive background both in the public sector — as chief of the civil rights division in the US Justice Department — and in the corporate world, as a lawyer for Coca-Cola and Texaco. He grew up poor and mostly fatherless on the South Side of Chicago and was blessed with extraordinary chances that brought him to Milton Academy and Harvard. His personal history resonates with chords in the American anthem that seem almost too corny to sing out loud: opportunity, hard work, community, justice. When he says he wants to extend those opportunities to others, the voters can believe it.
With his candidate for lieutenant governor, Worcester mayor Timothy Murray, Patrick should build a team that understands the needs of the struggling cities and towns while reaching for innovative solutions to some of the state’s most intractable problems.
The issues dominating the campaign have, until quite recently, been sideshows — ugly distractions from the central questions voters have about Massachusetts: Can I afford to stay here? Can I learn, and grow, and prosper? Patrick and Murray have offered a solid and achievable plan for continued improvements in education; investments in new technologies, especially in energy and biotechnology; expanded housing development to lower prices; and tax relief where it counts: the regressive and spiraling property tax.
Despite claims by his opponents that Patrick has made a long, budget-busting list of promises to special interests, his immediate priorities are rather modest. He wants to add 1000 police officers to local communities (Cost: $85 million, or less than one-half of one percent of the total state budget.) He wants to expand the circuit-breaker limit on property taxes for the elderly so that more residents are eligible (cost: $60 million). He wants to implement the state’s landmark universal health care law — slowly and carefully, without drama. Other more sweeping investments, in universal early education, for example, will have to wait until the economy rebounds.Continued...
Source: Patrick for governor - The Boston Globe
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