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Deval Patrick Elected Governor of Massachusetts    [

    Democrats Oust GOP in Governing Six States
    By Kirk Johnson
    The New York Times

    Wednesday 08 November 2006

    Chicago - Democrats won open governor's seats in five states Tuesday and knocked off the Republican incumbent in Maryland, tilting control of the majority of governorships to Democrats for the first time since the 1990s.

    The Republicans began Election Day with a 28 to 22 advantage over the Democrats in governorships.

    But they were faced with the daunting prospect of defending nine of the ten open seats amid a mood that was decidedly anti-Republican in many parts of the country. Democrats were able to capture statehouses in the Northeast, the West and the South. The open seats were in Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio.

    In Florida, Republicans were able to protect the seat that Gov. Jeb Bush has controlled for two terms. But in Maryland, Mayor Martin O'Malley of Baltimore, a Democrat, edged Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

    In dozens of other races, incumbents in states like Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas carried the day, despite some solid challenges.

    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California handily defeated his Democratic rival, delivering a high-profile Republican victory in a state where not a single Republican held high state office just four years ago. His re-election highlighted a night of victories by incumbents.

    But it was the races for the open seats - 10 in all, out of a total of 36 contests - that held much of the political attention.

    In Ohio, Ted Strickland, 65, a five-term congressman, defeated J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican and the secretary of the state.

    Ohio Republicans were under a cloud because the current governor, Bob Taft, a Republican, pleaded no contest last year to ethics charges arising from dealings with a crooked investment manage. Until Tuesday, Republicans had dominated Ohio state politics, including the governor's office for the last 16 years.

    In Massachusetts, voters elected Deval Patrick, a civil rights lawyer and former Clinton administration official. Mr. Patrick, 50, defeated Kerry Healey, the Republican lieutenant governor. He is the first African-American elected as governor in Massachusetts and will become only the second elected black governor in the nation's history since Reconstruction. The current governor, Mitt Romney, a Republican, chose not to run again.

    In New York, the state's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, easily defeated John J. Faso, a Republican, to capture the seat now held by George E. Pataki, the nation's longest-serving governor. Mr. Pataki, a Republican who came to office in 1994 with an upset victory over the Democrat Mario M. Cuomo, did not seek re-election.

    The Democrats picked up a fourth open seat in Arkansas, where the attorney general, Mike Beebe, defeated Asa Hutchinson, a former official in the federal Department of Homeland Security.

    President Bush and other officials in his administration had made repeated visits to Arkansas on behalf of Mr. Hutchinson in recent weeks. Political analysts said before the election that conservative voters in the state had been dispirited by the war and the sex scandal in Congress involving under-age pages. Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican was barred by term limits from running again.

    In Colorado, Bill Ritter, a Democrat and former district attorney in Denver, defeated two-term Representative Bob Beauprez, a Republican, in the race to succeed Gov. Bill Owens.

    It was a night that saw incumbent after incumbent raise hands in victory.

    Mr. Schwarzenegger's victory was particularly remarkable given that the governor, who won his seat in a 2004 recall of the Democratic governor, appeared to be all but finished just six month ago after a series of ballot initiatives he presented to voters failed.

    Mr. Schwarzenegger outspent his opponent, Phil Angelides, the state treasurer, and outdanced him to the left during the campaign. He passed a minimum-wage increase, a bill to curb heat-trapping gases at the potential expense of large companies, a measure approving prescription-drug discounts, all the while supporting stem cell research and openly criticizing the White House on issues like its order to police the Mexican border with National Guard troops

    In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, defeated John DeStefano, the mayor of New Haven and a Democrat. Gov. Sonny Perdue, Republican of Georgia, and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, also a Republican, were both re-elected.

    Republicans also held onto the governor's seat in Florida that many Democrats had desperately coveted - if only for the psychological impact on the Bush administration, since it was being vacated by Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother, who could not run again because of term limits. Charlie Crist, the Florida attorney general, beat Representative Jim Davis in that race.

    In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, was re-elected over his Republican challenger, Jim Coburn. And Edward G. Rendell, the Democratic incumbent in Pennsylvania, held on to win re-election against his Republican challenger, Lynn Swann, the former professional football player who is now a sports commentator.

    The Democratic incumbent in Illinois, Rod R. Blagojevich, also turned back a Republican challenge, from Judy Baar Topinka. Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, also won re-election, easily defeating his Republican challenger, Jim Bryson.

    But some incumbent victories came after a fierce political fight, especially in Michigan, where Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, held off her challenger, Dick DeVos, to win re-election. Ms. Granholm won despite the unhappiness of voters who had seemed ready, earlier in the campaign season, to blame her for the state's bad economy and lost auto industry jobs.

    In the Rocky Mountain West, where Democrats have made big gains in governors' seats and in state legislatures in recent years, Democratic incumbents won all their races. Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona won re-election, as did Gov. Dave Freudenthal in Wyoming and Gov. Bill Richardson in New Mexico.

    As voters cast their ballots across the country Tuesday, the big question in many state capitals was how much national politics they would effect their choices.

    In Rhode Island, one of the most solidly Democratic states in national elections, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, scrambled to remind voters why they had elected him four years ago.

    But in the end, the real key to the governors' elections, many party leaders and political scholars said, centered on one big factor: the number of open seats.

    Six incumbents, including Governor Bush of Florida, were barred by term limits from seeking re-election, and four governors - James E. Risch of Idaho, Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Mr. Romney of Massachusetts and Mr. Pataki of New York - chose not to run again. In the 10 governors' races without an incumbent, nine of the governors who were stepping aside were Republicans.

    Mr. Patrick's victory in Massachusetts will make him the nation's only sitting black governor. L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat from Virginia, was the nation's first elected black governor since Reconstruction, serving from 1990 to 1994.

    Mr. Patrick served as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the early 1980s, working mostly on death penalty and voting rights cases. He met Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, when he sued him in a voting case. In 1994, when he was president, Mr. Clinton appointed Mr. Patrick assistant attorney general for civil rights, the nation's top civil rights post.

 

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    Patrick Makes History
    By Frank Phillips
    The Boston Globe

    Tuesday 07 November 2006

Milton lawyer is first black governor of Massachusetts.

    Completing one of the most extraordinary political journeys the state has ever seen, Democrat Deval Patrick today won a landslide victory over Republican Kerry Healey and two other candidates to become the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts.

    Patrick stepped up to the podium at the Hynes Convention Center after an introduction by Sen. Edward Kennedy and told a roaring crowd of supporters: "You better believe we can!"

    "This was not a victory just for me, this was not a victory just for Democrats, this was a victory for hope," he said. "And we won it the old-fashioned way, we earned it."

    We won "by challenging you to see your stake in your neighbors' dreams as well as your own." He praised the grass-roots organization that propelled him to victory and noted that "every kind of person is here.... You see in common how broken our civic life and how fractured our communities are, and you know that government by gimic and soundbite is not working. You know we deserve better and we are better than that."

    "I will bring every day the best that I have and the best that I am,"" Patrick told the crowd. "And what I expect from you is that you keep this renewed sense of community alive. That you ask what you can do to make Massachusetts stronger and do it. That you don't let cynicism win, ever."

    Patrick, a former federal civil rights prosecutor and corporate lawyer making his first run for public office, rolled up huge margins across the state, clearing the way for the Democrats to capture the governor's office after 16 years of GOP control. Independent Christy Mihos and Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross trailed far behind Healey.

    "We are looking at an historic victory for Democrats," said Philip W. Johnston, state party chairman, as he watched the returns at the Hynes Convention Center where Democratic leaders, party activists, and Patrick supporters gathered for election night . "Deval Patrick is the most exciting candidate the party has to offer in this generation. He has generated tremendous enthusiasm among the entire electorate."

    His election marks a major watershed for Massachusetts, which has only once before elected a minority to a state wide office. Voters sent Republican Edward Brooke to serve two terms in the US Senate. Patrick is only the second African American to be elected governor in the United States. L. Douglas Wilder served a term as Virginia's governor in the early 1990's.

    Healey, appearing before her supporters at a Boston hotel just over an hour after polls closed, extended her congratulations to Patrick for she said was a "great victory." She also noted that the election marked an historic moment in state political history.

    "We are all grateful for the history that is being made tonight," Healey said. "Barriers have been broken and we should all be grateful for that."

    "I pray that God will give him the wisdom to lead Massachusetts into prosperity and lead us to innovation," Healey said, extending gracious comments to her Democratic rival that she never used during their bitterly fought campaign. "I am very hopeful that he will do exactly that."

    As ballots were counted last night, Patrick, battling in a four way race, rolled up a wide margin,. But he did not break the state's record gubernatorial landslide set in 1994, when incumbent governor William F. Weld beat Democrat Mark Roosevelt by 42.6 percentage points in a two person campaign.

    Patrick won a commanding majority of both women and men, and, while winning overwhelming majority among liberals, beat Healey among those who described themselves moderates and indepedents, according to an exit poll conducted for the Associated Press.

    Early returns last night showed Patrick, a 50-year-old Milton resident, ran up huge margins in urban centers that traditionally support Democrats, in the liberal communities around the state, and in the small communities in Western Massachusetts. Healey, the state's lieutenant governor, drew her votes in traditional Republicans areas, but couldn't get traction in areas such as the Merrimack Valley, suburban towns, and Cape Cod, where Republcians have traditionally gained enough support to win state wide elections.

    Patrick victory was fueled by heavy voting in many of the state's minority districts. Turnout in some areas of Boston was so strong that polling stations ran out of ballots, leaving long lines of frustrated voters. City officials rushed to get new ballots to those polling places. Last night, Patrick was carrying Boston by a 3 to 1 vote, including getting solid majorities in predominantly white neighborhoods such as South Boston and West Roxbury.

    Patrick also drew strong support from his hometown of Milton where 80 percent of registered voters showed up to cast ballots. In his own precinct the turnout was 88 percent.

    Patrick's victory yesterday marks the end of a campaign that few thought was possible. He appeared on the Massachusetts political scene in early 2005, expressing an interest in running for governor. He was a virtual unknown, with few political contacts in the Beacon Hill establishment and no financial base.

    After announcing his campaign that April, he proceeded to woo liberal activists and others with inspirational themes of inclusiveness and hope, while vowing to bring a change to the state's political cultural. His campaign recruited thousands of highly enthusiastic volunteers, allowing him to build a state-wide organization and outflank his Democratic rivals Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and businessman Christopher Gabrieli. He won the three way primary race with 50 percent of the vote.

    His huge victory at the polls yesterday ends a bitter general election battle in which Healey sought to portray him as a liberal in the mold of former governor Michael S. Dukakis. She criticized him for being "soft" on crime, for favoring special tuition rates and drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and for refusing to back her call to roll back the income tax to 5 percent. She also hammered away at the theme that voters should prefer a Republican as governor to act as a partisan balance to the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

    Healey's controversial decision to air tough negative attack ads against Patrick in mid October shook up the campaign, with polls showing his once commanding lead over her in the first weeks narrowing.

    But the increasing tough tone of her commercials produced a backlash from voters. One ad particularly - a woman shown walking through a dark garage, followed by images of Patrick defending a convicted rapist - seemed to backfire. A Boston Globe poll showed voters felt she had "crossed the line" with her commercials. Her unfavorable rating rose to over 50 percent and his margin over hear expanded to levels he had enjoyed before the ads.

    Her attacks on him on the other issues - most of which a majority voters sided with her - also did not diminish his standings with voters, polls showed. Instead, the electorate seemed drawn to his personality, his ability to connect when he addressed crowds and met voters, and his inspirational themes, including his calls to put aside partisan bickering.

    As he came under attack, Patrick rejected the private urgings of Democratic leaders for him to respond with equally tough commercials. Still, Democratic allies and unions financed some negative ads that help to damage her standing with the electorate.

    Patrick's victory that will move him into the governor's office is another chapter of a extraordinary success story for a young man who grew in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side. He had won scholarships to attend Milton Academy and Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He was the Clinton administration's chief of the US Justice Department's civil rights division and later served as general counsel to Coca Cola and Texaco.

    Patrick's victory is also a major blow to the Massachusetts Republican Party, now at its lowest point in its 150 year history. The GOP numbers in the 200-member state legislature are at its lowest levels ever and the party holds none of the state constitutional offices for the first time since 1991. No Republican has held a congressional seat since 1996. The Green-Rainbow Party has more candidates on the ballot for state wide office than the Republican Party.

    Healey's loss is also a political embarrassment for Governor Mitt Romney as he pursues his national ambitions. He had picked her as his running mate in 2002 and is now getting some of the blame for her defeat. Romney, in his bid to drum support for a presidential candidacy, has become increasingly unpopular in Massachusetts as he crafts conservative positions to court right-leaning voters in the national GOP electorate. He also served this year as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, whose mission it is to elect Republican governors around the state.

    Romney's director of communications, Eric Fehrnstrom, tried last last night to put the best spin on the GOP defeat, although he acknowledged that "losing the governor's office is a big blow."

    But he said the loss also "might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the Republicans. It might take a one party system for the voters in Massachusetts to see what a healthy two-party balance means for democracy."