WP: New Democratic Star: Deval Patrick of Massachusetts

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: New Star Among the Democrats
By David S. Broder
Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page A33


Deval Patrick (Michael Dwyer - AP)

BOSTON -- The buzz here this autumn is all about the newcomer to elective politics who is threatening to break the hold that Republicans have had for an unusually long time on the governorship of this overwhelmingly Democratic state.

His name is Deval Patrick. Barely two years after he moved back to Massachusetts from a business career that had taken him to New York and Atlanta, he beat two better-known and better-financed opponents for the Democratic nomination in last month's primary. Now he is favored over Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee to succeed Gov. Mitt Romney, who is moving on to pursue the presidency....

***

Patrick is riding that momentum in a campaign that is notably nonpartisan in tone and studiedly vague on some issues. But he has staked his chances on resisting Healey's call for a rollback in income tax rates -- something Romney has also advocated. "We cannot starve the government of resources any more than we can justify wasting the public's funds," he told me. "We can build together if we work together."

The one concern I heard expressed about Patrick comes from Democrats worried about the destination of his rapid trajectory. With his racial background, his Illinois roots, and his crossover appeal to independents and even some Republicans, he is inevitably compared to Barack Obama, the young African American senator from Illinois who keynoted the Democratic National Convention in Boston two summers ago.

Obama has become the hottest ticket on the national Democratic speaking circuit and figures in speculation as a future presidential candidate -- maybe even in 2008....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401540.html?nav=most_emailed

[snowbear]

1. ~~~ Awesome! ~~~~

I've heard nothing but great things about him! Kudos to Massachusetts!! ~~~

[mom cat]

2. Entrenched stogy Dems who are worried about Patrick's sudden rise

get no sympathy from me. Things needed a bit of a shakeup and this is it.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. Deval is someone who can shake up Massachusetts

The reason why Republicans like Weld and Romney have been getting elected is because MA voters don't want the state legislature to have unlimited power (the legislature has had corruption problems before.) However, I think that Romeny ruined this pattern because he's to the right of the moderate Republicans (ie. Weld) who were fiscally conservative but not culture warriors.

[Hav]

3. .

http://electionprediction.us/2006/09/23/massachusetts.aspx

Two polls, one has him leading with 64-25, the other 55-33.
Looks like a clean sweep for the Dems in MA ;).

[FrenchieCat]

5. Whoo Hoo!

YES!

lOVE IT!

[Eurobabe]

6. Dad and I were just talking about why MA goes RED?

We don't get it. Hopefully this year will shatter the trend.

Go DEVAL!!

[Doctor_J]

7. How political is he?

how ambitious? Ted can't live forever, after all.