Deval Patrick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deval Patrick
Governor-Elect Deval Patrick
Governor-Elect of Massachusetts
Term in office begins: January 4, 2007
Lieutenant Governor:	Tim Murray
Succeeeding:	Mitt Romney
Born:	July 31, 1956 Chicago, Illinois
Political party:	Democrat
Profession:	Lawyer
Spouse:	Diane Patrick
Religion:	Presbyterian

Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American politician and the Governor-elect of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On November 7, 2006, Patrick became the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts, and only the second in United States history.^[1] He garnered 56% of the vote, 20 points ahead of the second-place finisher, Kerry Healey. He is scheduled to take office in January of 2007. Prior to entering politics, Patrick worked as an attorney and businessman. He and his wife Diane Patrick have lived in Milton, Massachusetts since 1989. They have two daughters, Sarah and Katherine.

1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Campaign for Governor
- 3.1 Political views
- 3.2 Criticism and controversies
4 Administration as Governor of Massachusetts
- 4.1 The Patrick/Murray transition
- 4.2 The Patrick and Murray inauguration
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Patrick was born on Chicago's South Side in 1956, into an African-American family living on welfare and residing in a two-bedroom tenement. His father Pat Patrick, a member of jazz musician Sun Ra's band, left his wife Emily, son Deval, and daughter Rhonda in order to play music in New York City.^[2] While in middle school, one of Deval's teachers referred Deval to "A Better Chance", a national non-profit organization for identifying, recruiting and developing leaders among academically gifted students of color, which enabled him to attend Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.^[3]^[4]

Patrick graduated from Milton Academy in 1974 and from Harvard College in 1978. He then spent a year working with the United Nations in Africa. In 1979, Patrick returned to the United States and enrolled at Harvard Law School. While in law school, Patrick was elected president of the Legal Aid Bureau, where he first worked defending poor families in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early legal work

After receving his J.D. from Harvard Law School, Patrick worked as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then became an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City. While working with LDF, Patrick met future President Bill Clinton, then serving as governor of Arkansas. Clinton was being sued over a voting rights case, and the two worked out a settlement. Also while working with LDF, Patrick married Diane Bemus, an attorney specializing in labor and employment law. In 1986 Patrick went to work as a private attorney for Hill & Barlow, a now-dissolved Boston law firm, and became a partner in 1990. He also continued doing volunteer work for LDF and for other civil rights causes.

[edit] Clinton Administration

In 1994, Clinton nominated Patrick to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. As an Assistant Attorney General, Patrick worked on a range of issues, including racial profiling, police misconduct, fair lending enforcement, human trafficking, and discrimination based on gender and disability. He led what was before 9/11 the largest federal criminal investigation in history as co-chair of the Task Force appointed to address arsons of Black churches and synagogues in the South. He also played a key role as an advisor to post-apartheid South Africa during this time and helped to create their civil rights laws^[5].

His tenure was not without controversy. During this time, federal affirmative action policy was under judicial and political review, and Patrick was thrust into the midst of the President's policy defense. As part of his job, Patrick also enforced federal laws concerning treatment of incarcerated criminals, to the extent that one warden called him a "zealot".^[6] He has also been criticized for his role in the 3rd Circuit Court case Piscataway v. Taxman: where due to budget constraints Sharon Taxman, a white woman, was laid off rather than Debra Williams, a black woman with identical seniority and qualifications, because the school committee wanted diversity on its teaching staff. Taxman sued and prevailed in US District Court, but then Patrick encouraged the Justice Department, which had supported Taxman in the Bush administration, to withdraw from the case. Taxman, who was subsequently rehired, eventually settled her suit.

[edit] Corporate career

In 1997, Patrick returned to Boston to join the firm Day, Berry & Howard, and was appointed by the federal district court to serve as Chairman of the Task Force to oversee implementation of the terms of a race discrimination settlement at Texaco. After serving for nearly two years, he was appointed vice president and general counsel for the company in New York City. From 2000 to 2004, Patrick worked as executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. He resigned in 2004, ending nearly 6 years of weekly commuting between Massachusetts and jobs out of state.

Some gay rights activists have criticized him for his tenure on the United Airlines board. During this time, the company fought a San Francisco ordinance requiring companies to offer domestic partners benefits. Patrick encouraged UAL to offer domestic partner benefits to all employees, becoming the first airline to do so.^[7] Patrick contends that for a global company to comply with local employment ordinances in San Francisco would have set an unhelpful precedent.

In 2004, he was appointed to the board of directors of the firm that controls Ameriquest, the mortgage company infamous for predatory lending scandals, because of his 20 years of fighting such problems. Ameriquest subsequently agreed to a $325 million dollar settlement regarding their predatory lending practices in 49 states.^[8] Patrick stepped down from the board on July 2, 2006.

[edit] Campaign for Governor

In 2005, Patrick announced his candidacy for Governor of Massachusetts. He was at first seen as a dark horse candidate, facing veteran Massachusetts campaigners Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrielli in the Democratic primary. The Patrick campaign gained momentum at the Democratic State Caucuses, where it organized their supporters, many of whom had never been involved in such party processes before, to win twice as many pledged delegates as the Reilly campaign. Patrick went on to win the nomination, and faced Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey whom he defeated in the November general election. Patrick has become the second elected African-American state governor in United States history, the first being Virginia State Governor Douglas Wilder who was elected in 1989, and the third African-American to serve as a United States state governor, the first being P. B. S. Pinchback, the Senate president pro tempore of Louisiana who ascended to the governorship of Louisiana after the death of Oscar Dunn in 1872.

[edit] Political views

Patrick is in favor of preserving same-sex marriage because of the fundamental principle that "citizens come before their government as equals".^[9]^[10] To stem controversy in the socially conservative Black religious community, he has emphasized his priorities on finding solution to other issues important in Massachusetts, such as the murder rate, AIDS, and unemployment.^[11]

Patrick opposes the death penalty, saying that "the death penalty does not work. It hasn’t worked in actually deterring crime, and it won’t work for Massachusetts."^[12]^[9] This position puts him at odds with Lt. Governor Kerry Healey who would "reinstate the death penalty for felons convicted of killing a law enforcement officer, judge, prosecutor or corrections officer."^[13]

Patrick was an early supporter of the Cape Wind energy project, at a time when prominent Massachusetts politicians from Mitt Romney to Ted Kennedy were working against it. His leadership on this issue was a key turning point in the early stage of the campaign, and tapped into the then-unknown widespread support held by over 70% of the state (according to recent opinion polls).^[14]

On health care reform, Patrick has called the new health insurance mandate an important first step that needs to be "implemented brilliantly", although far from the last word. He believes that the state needs to have a serious debate about moving towards single-payer health care.^[15]^[16]

Patrick is a proponent of stem cell research and was critical of current Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for vetoing a stem cell bill. He proposes creating a bonding bill similar to California's recent path, and using it to invest in stem cell research at the University of Massachusetts, creating a simultaneous boost to the commonwealth's institutions of public higher education.^[17]

Patrick believes immigration is a federal issue and has supported the McCain-Kennedy plan to both tighten border control and create "pathway[s] to citizenship" for immigrants who have established lives in America.^[18] On the state level, he supports increased enforcement of employment laws to crack down on employers taking advantage of illegal immigrants, and opposes discrimination on the basis of immigration status for providing state services, including such things as public housing, in-state tuition for public universities, and driver's licenses.^[19] However, he has acknowledged it may be impossible to go forward on driver's licenses due to recent federal legislation.

[edit] Criticism and controversies

Former Democratic governor and 1988 presidential nominee Mike Dukakis referred to the general election campaign as "the dirtiest gubernatorial campaign in my memory".^[20] The Healey campaign sponsored several negative ads about Deval Patrick. Some of the issues raised about Patrick include the following:

Patrick was attacked for his advocacy of Benjamin LaGuer, a man convicted of a 1983 rape of a Massachusetts woman. The fairness of LaGuer's trial had been called into question by experts from around the country.^[21]^[22] Patrick had written two letters on LaGuer's behalf to the Parole Board,^[23] and after reviewing the current status of the case, including the a 2002 DNA test linking LaGuer to the victim (which Patrick helped pay for^[24]), Patrick announced that he now believes that justice had been served.

Patrick was criticized in a TV ad run in early October for serving as the attorney for a Florida man accused of killing a police officer. The ad referred to Patrick's work as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1985. Patrick had successfully argued to reverse the death sentence imposed on Carl Ray Songer for a murder committed in 1973.^[25] In response, Patrick’s campaign pointed to an unsuccessful 2004 effort by Healey’s running mate, Reed Hillman, to seek a gubernatorial pardon on behalf of friend and former Senate candidate James W. Mitchell.^[26]^[27]

Patrick came under fire for meeting in a diner with William Bulger^[28] the controversial former President of the Massachusetts State Senate and brother of fugitive serial-murderer James "Whitey" Bulger.^[29] Patrick had been running on a platform touting change and that he wouldn't be vulnerable to Boston's political powerbrokers and insiders.

[edit] Administration as Governor of Massachusetts

[edit] The Patrick/Murray transition

Deval Patrick is expected to become the next governor of Massachusetts on January 4, 2007. He has named a transition team headed by lawyer Michael Angelini, bank executive Ronald Homer, and Weld administration economic affairs secretary Gloria Larson.^[30] In his first meetings with the legislative leadership, he has proposed his first action will be to hire 1000 new police officers and to expand full-day kindergarten statewide.^[31]

As part of the transition, Patrick has created a series of working groups who will hold public meetings to advise him on various policy areas.^[32] The groups include a few names prominent in the election: Harvard Pilgrim CEO Charles Baker on Budget & Finance, a Weld administration finance advisor who had been considered a potential GOP candidate for governor; Center of Women and Enterprise founder and candidate in the Lieutenant Governor's primary Andrea Silbert on Economic Development; and gubernatorial primary candidate Chris Gabrieli on PreK-12 Education.

[edit] The Patrick and Murray inauguration

Breaking with the tradition of being inaugurated in the House Chamber of the Massachusetts State House, Deval Patrick and Tim Murray will, weather permitting, take the oath of office, and Patrick will deliver his inauguaral address, outdoors on the West Portico of the State House facing Boston Common. This will allow a larger part of the public to witness and take part first hand in the event, and is intended to signal more open, transparent, and accessible government. ^[33]The governor-elect will be facing the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, just across Beacon Street, a memorial to the first African American regiment in the U.S. Civil War.

A series of regional inaugural balls, seven in all, are planned to bring the inauguration to the citizens of the commonwealth. Inauguration balls are planned on Cape Cod, in Worcester, New Bedford/Fall River, Pitsfield, and Boston. ^[34]