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Boston Globe, Patrick rallies party, calls out GOP
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/06/patrick_rallies_party_calls_out_gop/
Patrick rallies party, calls out GOP
A combative summons to action at state convention
WORCESTER — In a combative and forceful speech to the state Democratic convention, Governor Deval Patrick rallied party activists to his reelection campaign yesterday, warning that his rivals would roll back the gains his administration has made in the areas of the economy, social justice, health care, and the environment.
Appearing before more than 3,900 delegates, Patrick gave a strong defense of his record and a robust appeal to the party’s values, trying to infuse the crowd with both confidence and new energy as Democrats face a volatile electorate and battle with Republicans for control of the governor’s office, congressional seats, and scores of statewide and legislative posts.
Patrick, drawing on the passion that he often displayed in his upstart campaign in 2006, captivated the hall at the DCU Center, frequently bringing delegates to their feet.
“We worked hard four years ago to change the guard,’’ Patrick, whose political future seemed bleak just months ago, told the convention crowd. “Now it’s up to all of us to guard the change.’’
Though his delivery was familiar, it was a far different moment from when he addressed delegates four years ago, as an outsider promising a new kind of government. Today it is his government, and it is up to him to defend its record.
The governor painted an upbeat picture of the Massachusetts economy yesterday, trumpeting his administration’s focus on making the state a center for biotech, life sciences, and energy industries. In the midst of the massive oil spill in the Gulf, he also celebrated the recent federal approval of the Cape Wind project, embracing the decision as a major political victory.
Patrick boasted about the high test scores of Bay State students and how he had helped deliver long-delayed ethics and campaign reforms to Beacon Hill, a crackdown on pension abuse, and a streamlining of transportation agencies, which eliminated the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
“Massachusetts is on the mend and on the move,’’ he said.
In the only contested endorsement races yesterday, delegates backed a former party chairman, Steven Grossman, for state treasurer, and a battle for the endorsement for state auditor ended in a near deadlock between former state representative Suzanne Bump and Guy Glodis, the Worcester County sheriff, with neither getting the convention nod.
Patrick also launched stinging partisan barbs at his rivals, Republican Charles D. Baker and independent Timothy P. Cahill, saying their calls for huge tax cuts would gut education programs and the state’s first-in-the-nation universal health care law.
And he accused them of almost rooting for the state to fail, because it would help them politically. “They need Massachusetts to fail so that you will once again buy their empty promises,’’ Patrick said.
“We had year after year of Republican governors more interested in having the job than doing the job,’’ he said to loud applause.
Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray was harsher, raising the issue of Baker’s career as a highly paid health insurance executive. In his address, Murray joked that he has been called a lot of names in this campaign — among them “attack dog’’ and “pit bull’’ — but what he most resented was being called a butler by opponents.
“Who has a butler these days other than, perhaps, an overcompensated health care executive?’’ he said in a swipe at Baker’s tenure leading Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
Within minutes of the governor’s speech, the Baker campaign released a statement chiding Patrick for asserting that the state is moving in the right direction.
“Massachusetts has one of the highest unemployment levels in its history, we’re losing jobs to other states, there is a $2 billion deficit looming, and the governor continues to tax and spend at reckless levels — he must be the only one in the Commonwealth who believes we’re headed in the right direction,’’ Baker spokeswoman Amy Goodrich said in a statement.
The Democratic conclave took place in a year of political turmoil, in which Republicans are energized by Scott Brown’s victory in the US Senate race in January. They hope Patrick’s early missteps and clumsy moves and his support for tax increases will allow them to retake the governor’s office, pick up a seat or more in Congress, and make their first significant gains in the Legislature since 1990.
Patrick and his aides came to the convention determined to persuade activists that he can lead the Democratic ticket to a strong finish in November. Many delegates and elected officials said the governor succeeded. Recent polls show him holding double-digit leads over Baker and Cahill, although his job-approval rating and popular standing remain dangerously low for an incumbent.
“He was right on the mark and right on the point,’’ said state Senator Steven Tolman of Boston. “And he’s right on his stride.’’
Alex Arias, an independent voter who was at the convention working for another candidate, said that he was not certain he would support Patrick, but that the governor’s speech may have changed his mind.
“I thought he was inspiring, as usual,’’ Arias said. “I’m just not very happy with a lot of the politics. But after today, I’m willing to give him another chance.’’
Paola Ferrer, a first-time delegate from Allston-Brighton, expressed confidence in Patrick’s organization.
“Whatever doubts I might have had a few months ago were all allayed when I started seeing his teams in the streets,’’ Ferrer said. “He’s really mobilized people that believe in what he’s started and believe that in the next four years, he can push the envelope to achieve those goals.’’
In the treasurer’s race, Grossman, who has far outspent his rival, Boston city councilor Stephen Murphy, drew a strong 84 percent of the delegate votes, just shy of denying Murphy access to the Sept. 14 primary ballot; a candidate needs to get 15 percent to qualify. According to officials in the Boston delegation, Mayor Thomas M. Menino directed just enough votes from city delegates, whom he largely controls, to push Murphy over the threshold.
“Mandate Murphy lives again,’’ Murphy joked to reporters after the vote tally showed he got 15.6 percent.
The fight for the endorsement for state auditor ended with Bump edging Glodis by 18 votes. A third candidate, political activist Michael Lake, also qualified for the ballot.
Glodis had entered the convention the favorite, having doggedly pursued the endorsement. But playing on Glodis’s conservative record on social issues, Bump successfully rallied the progressive coalitions in the party, surprising even some of her advisers, who were worried last week that she might fail to make the ballot. A big boost came in the form of a last-minute endorsement from retiring state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci.
“I’m coming out of here with momentum that I could not have hoped for,’’ Bump said.
The party also held a tribute to the late Edward M. Kennedy, which included a well-received speech from his widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Delegates cheered his work to get a major national health care bill passed, which came after his death, thanks to a vote by his interim successor, Paul Kirk.
Recalling an early Kennedy campaign slogan — “He can do more for Massachusetts’’ — US Senator John F. Kerry said, “He did more for Massachusetts than anyone could have imagined.’’
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