Free Republic

NYT THURSDAY: New Massachusetts Governor 'On The Ropes'... Developing...

Governor Deval Patrick has set up a novel political fund-raising system that allows him to skirt the state's campaign finance law by channeling big contributions through the state Democratic Party, which, in turn, has paid off hundreds of thousands of dollars of the governor's political expenses.

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick is releasing a state budget Wednesday amidst the gloomiest financial outlook Massachusetts government has seen since deep budget cuts earlier this decade. Even so, there are early indications that Gov. Patrick will pursue an aggressive agenda as he begins his second year in office. He has already revealed the budget will include a $368 million increase for public education and an 8.3 percent increase in beaches and parks funding, to $100 million. How he proposes to increase spending in targeted areas, while closing a potential $1.3 billion shortfall and dealing with a slowing economy, will...

There are plenty of stakeholders with plans riding on Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed $1 billion state investment in life sciences -- from the people for whom life-saving innovation is being developed to the scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and businesses depending on state support to thrive and commercialize. Yet for all of the political wrangling, public discussion and media attention since Patrick introduced the bill in May, the bill has yet to move through the state Legislature, receive funding or prompt state officials to name a new executive director to the agency slated to manage the bulk of funding associated with the...

Plans for an embryonic stem-cell bank at the University of Massachusetts Medical School for researchers around the globe took a major step forward last week when the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center authorized more than $8 million for the bank and an associated registry. It is a significant step in Central Massachusetts’ evolution as a major center of biotechnology and biomedical research. Interim chancellor Michael F. Collins said the bank should be operating within eight to 12 months, the registry even sooner than that. That is in keeping with the fast pace at which Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s life sciences and...

Governor Deval Patrick, determined to exert control over the University of Massachusetts system, is undaunted by his failed bid last month to remove UMass board chairman Stephen P. Tocco and is still planning his ouster, according to administration officials. Patrick aides have been testing sentiment among UMass trustees and said they expect the governor to have sufficient support to remove Tocco in a matter of months. Patrick was publicly stung when his allies on the board could not muster enough votes last month to force out the influential Tocco, who is an appointee of Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, but...

If only Osama bin Laden had been hugged more as a child. If only the 19 wild-eyed jihadists who hijacked our airplanes and murdered 3,000 of our brothers and sisters six years ago had some kind of “human understanding” of the people they set out to systematically torture and kill. Then, Gov. Deval Patrick, would we all be sitting around together sipping tea? We’d like to believe that a few of Patrick’s lines at yesterday’s 9/11 memorial ceremony at the State House were the product of first-time jitters, or perhaps a truly clueless speechwriter. Unfortunately, the governor’s fuzzy recollection of...

Governor Deval Patrick plans to unveil a proposal today to make Massachusetts' community colleges, among the priciest in the nation, free to all high school graduates in the state by the year 2015, according to documents obtained by the Globe. The proposal is the centerpiece of Patrick's vision for a "cradle to career" education system that would dramatically expand the concept of public education in Massachusetts. The plan, which he will outline during commencement at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, would also provide preschool for all children, extend the school day and year, and guarantee two years of community...

GARDNER (MA) In his first commencement address of his administration, Governor Deval Patrick called for civic engagement yesterday, while delivering a broadside against Bush administration policies. Patrick's exhortation appeared to resonate with many of the 656 students graduating from Mount Wachusett Community College and their families, who gave him a long standing ovation. (snip) Without naming President Bush or members of his administration, Patrick took aim at their response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying that in its wake, the nation has been governed by fear. Patrick said fear "drove us to round up people of Arab...

As controversy enveloped his young tenure, Gov. Deval L. Patrick says he took an impromptu phone call from former President Bill Clinton that helped rescue his fledgling governorship from the downward spiral of its first 100 days. “We were on the phone for almost an hour,” Patrick said of the recent conversation. “He reminded me just how important it is to stay focused on the (political) destination, even though there is an awful lot of effort to get you off that focus.” The tete-a-tete with Clinton, a mentor to Patrick who gave him his first government job, shows the powerful...

--But popularity high despite his missteps-- Governor Deval Patrick remains a highly popular figure in Massachusetts, but his constituents are concerned about his performance as the state's new chief executive after several stumbles during his first months in office, according to a Boston Globe poll. Sixty-three percent of the 500 adults surveyed last week view the new Democratic governor favorably, which is comparable to his standing just before his landslide victory in November, when he received a 60 percent favorable rating in a Globe poll. But despite Patrick's continued popularity, only 48 percent approved of the way he is handling...

Statement From UMass President On Governor's Stem Cell Policy Announcement Today & UMass Stem Cell Initiatives University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson today expressed his strong support for Governor Patrick's proposal to reverse state restrictions on stem cell research imposed by the previous administration, citing the importance of the research in developing cures for disease and in maintaining Massachusetts' national leadership in the life science industry. Wilson also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, which oversees state funding for life science initiatives. "As the president of the University of Massachusetts, which does...

Governor Deval Patrick today announced a major shakeup of his new administration that includes the resignation of the $72,000-a-year aide he hired for his wife and the addition of new communications and political advisers. Amy Gorin, whose husband led Patrick's fund-raising committee during the campaign, was hired to handle scheduling and interview requests for Diane Patrick, a law partner at Ropes & Gray. Her resignation comes just 10 weeks into a new administration that has been dogged by missteps. To help after several weeks of negative press, Joe Landolfi will take over as a senior communications adviser to the governor....

You’re Lt. Gov. Tim Murray and you’re not in Worcester anymore. You have tire tracks up and down your back from all the times Deval’s crew has thrown you under the bus this past week. First it was the Ameriquest disaster. You got pushed out in front of the cameras to say, “No problem.” An hour later, Deval lobbed a press release out into the hall, saying, “Big problem!” Then, Saturday night, Deval’s moonbats left you hanging out in an Al Haig-like I’m-in-charge moment. It was another press release: Deval is going to a “flexible” schedule for a while, because...

Ten weeks into a disastrously bad first term as Massachusetts' governor, Deval Patrick announced today that he has to cut-back on his workload because of the burden placed on him and his family. So reports Fox. Perhaps Patrick will become the first telecommuting governor, staying at his $8 mansion and working via laptop. His reign has certainly been an eyeful. As President Clinton's Assistant Attorney General For Racial Quotas and Slavery Reparations, Patrick apparently had enjoyed a much more relaxed lifestyle than that of the governor of a state so polarized and driven half insane by Liberal politics. His proflagate...

(WBZ) BOSTON Governor Deval Patrick is facing questions over some contributions he received during his campaign for governor. The donations came from employees of two firms building a new development in Cambridge. Two of the donors now work for the governor, and that's just one of the issues being raised. Dan O'Connell and Greg Bialecki were both involved in the Northpoint development in Cambridge. O'Connell is now Patrick's Secretary of Housing and Development. Bialecki is one of Patrick's top aides involved in real estate permitting. In February, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the Northpoint construction project in a lawsuit...

BOSTON - Deval Patrick rode a populist wave to become Massachusetts' first Democratic governor in 16 years and the second African American elected governor in U.S. history. But nine weeks into the job, he faces a possible ethics investigation after missteps that threaten his reforms and have added a whiff of scandal to his brief tenure. The former top U.S. civil-rights enforcer in the Clinton administration has publicly apologized twice in recent weeks over separate errors of judgment in what some expected to be a honeymoon period marked by the return of a bold, liberal agenda to one of the...

Gov (Deval Patrick) rips feds' treatment of illegals...

Was Gov. Deval Patrick’s intervention in a financial deal involving Ameriquest ethical? No it wasn't, he works for the taxpayers now. Maybe not, but it's just the freshman jitters. Yes, he can call all he wants as long as he's not paid.

The moonbats are in mourning. In meltdown. In the muck, the mire. De-mooned. De-pressed. De-swooned. Ma-rooned. Pass the Xanax, please! What happened to Divine Deval, man of hope, the man who was to restore holier-than-thou progressives - dare I say liberals - to disinfect the Corner Office after 16 years of nasty, greedy, let-them-eat-cake-crumbs-and-like-it Republicans? "It started with the (inaugural) parties," says The Uber Moonbat of Roslindale, Erik Gehring. I first met him last fall, on his Trek 700 bike, Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, the belly of the moonbat beast by the Blissful Monkey Yoga Studio, the Wonder Spice Cafe,...