Deval Patrick Wins
Mass. Governor Primary
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, September 20, 2006
BOSTON -- Deval Patrick, a
former top U.S. civil-rights enforcer, will try to become Massachusetts' first
black governor and break a 16-year Republican hold on the office after winning
the liberal state's Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Patrick, 50, who served as assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights
under former President Bill Clinton, faces Republican lieutenant governor Kerry
Healey and millionaire independent Christy Mihos in the November 7 general
election.
If Patrick wins in November, as some early polls suggest, he could become only
the second black person ever elected governor in the United States, although two
other African-American candidates are running in Pennsylvania and Ohio this
year.
"Yes we can!" Patrick declared to jubilant supporters.
Patrick carried every county with 49 percent of the vote, about double that of
his rivals -- venture capitalist Christopher Gabrieli and attorney-general
Thomas Reilly -- after the state's costliest gubernatorial primary.
November's winner will succeed Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who is expected to
run for the White House in 2008. Despite Massachusetts' reputation as a
liberal bastion and a record of backing Democrats for president, moderate
Republicans have held the governor's office for four consecutive terms.
After winning her party's nomination unopposed, Healey quickly branded Patrick a
tax-and-spend liberal who is weak on crime and said a Republican was needed to
balance the Democratic-controlled state Legislature.
Patrick's grass-roots campaign, focused on "the politics of hope," rallied party
faithful and appealed more broadly to moderate Democrats impressed by the
clean-cut, Harvard-educated corporate lawyer and his life story.
Patrick grew up poor on Chicago's South Side, living on welfare after his
saxophone-player father left the family to join avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra
when Patrick was five years old.
He attended the prestigious Milton Academy in Massachusetts on scholarship and
then Harvard College and Law School.
He worked briefly as a civil-rights advocate at the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People in New York before joining former Boston law firm
Hill & Barlow.
Clinton tapped him to lead the U.S. Justice Department's civil-rights division
in 1994. He later took executive positions in the legal departments of
Coca-Cola and Texaco.
Historically, blacks have faced steep obstacles running for state office in the
United States. Only one African-American, Democrat Douglas Wilder of
Virginia, has been elected governor -- holding the job from 1990 to 1994.
But race figured little in the Massachusetts primary campaign, which focused
mostly on the candidates' personalities. Reilly was seen as an old-guard
Massachusetts politician and Gabrieli suffered from ballot fatigue after losing
two past races for public office.
The candidates' similarities on policies -- from support for gay marriage to
extending the length of the school day and providing state funding of stem-cell
research -- outweighed their disagreements.
Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report in Washington said it was unclear
whether race still costs minority candidates support as it has in the past.
"It varies from region to region," she said.
David King, associate director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy
School, said he doubts race will emerge as an issue in the November election,
partly because Healey is a woman.
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