Maybe its just that its Spring. The bright yellow forsythia are out everywhere, the leaves on the trees are coming out, and the 2006 race for governor of Massachusetts is really interesting. Arguably, the campaign has been going on for a long time now. But that feels like a good thing. Because change is in the air -- and change has been a long time in coming.
A lot of times in electoral politics, campaigns seem like forever. They never end; people wish they were over; they get tired of hearing about it. I know I have felt that way. But this year, I sense that people understand that politics is being reinvented -- at least in the Democratic Party. Much is at stake. The GOP has won the governorship four times in a row. We needn't dwell on the many problems the Democrats have had -- except to say that they are solving them.
One important element this year is that one of the greatest obstacles is no longer in the way.
Tom Finneran, who got elected as Speaker of the House with the votes of the GOP caucus, is no longer speaker. Rightly or wrongly, Finneran came to symbolize to many, what was wrong with state government. To some he symbolized an antidemocratic style of leadership with his authoritarianism; to others he symbolized the attitude that anyplace in the state west of Worcester was Wyoming; he also came to symbolize the patronage-laden old boy network that seemed to make government cost a lot more than it should -- and get a lot less done for the money; he came to symbolize the Democratic Party itself, as its highest ranking official -- which was disastrous for the Democratic Party. But now he is gone, as are a number of his loyal supporters in the House.
Meanwhile, the Democratic primary race is getting interesting. Deval Patrick, the 48 year old, African-American, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton administration -- is catching on with Democratic activists statewide. He is new to electoral politics and carefully studying issues that are new to him before jumping in with a list of prefab policy positions. And he is actually listening to what people have to say. (Isn't that refreshing?) That said, he is also unequivocally, prochoice, pro-marriage equality, and anti-death penalty. As an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, he worked on death row cases. He knows the way the system can fail justice.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Tom Reilly, who has spent the past several years running for governor, remains the front runner and has raised a lot of money -- but he has not captured people's hearts and imagination, and many Dems worry that whatever his record and his views, he cannot win against incumbent governor Mitt Romney. So many Dems are looking for an alternative. Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi wrote yesterday that Reilly's candidacy is "the toughest case Tom Reilly will ever have to prove."
"I see old-time politics that's getting us nowhere," Patrick told 300 people who packed the Cape and Islands Democratic Council's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Hyannis. "It's time for a change and I want to be that agent of change," he said, according to The Cape Cod Times.
But like anyone else, Patrick will have his challenges. He has spent much of his career so far, working for major corporations, most recently as General Counsel for Coca-Cola. While at Coke, he successfully defended the company against charges that it was complicit in the murder of labor activists at an unaffiliated Coke bottling plant in Columbia. Internally, he pushed for an independent investigation of the whole matter. The CEO at the time agreed. When the CEO reneged, Patrick resigned. Still, a lot of progressive labor activists have questions -- and Patrick says he has answers.
The situation in Columbia has been of great concern to students and labor activists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in recent years. We can expect that all this will be aired when Patrick addresses the Amherst Democratic Town Committee on Monday, May 9th at 7pm at the Jones Library (the public library in Amherst). The event is free and open to the public.
[Crossposted from FrederickClarkson.com]