Alum Makes Campaign Visit

Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Deval L. Patrick ’78 made a campaign stop in Cambridge last night for the first time since announcing his candidacy for the 2006 governor’s race two weeks ago.

At a forum sponsored by the Cambridge Democratic City Committee, Patrick pledged to promote universal health care for Massachusetts residents, boost the public education system, and act as a “salesman” to improve the state’s economy.

“I’m very interested in making greater access to the American Dream more widely available to people and that’s why I’m running for governor,” Patrick said.

Patrick, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights during the Clinton administration.

While Patrick has never held an elected political office before, he has made a name for himself as a prominent civil rights attorney, working closely with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.

Currently, he is the only candidate who has announced his intention to run for governor in 2006.

In his speech, Patrick said he would offer a “politics of hope” if elected—an idea he championed as the “antidote” to the current leadership of Mass. Governor W. Mitt Romney.

“Romney cannot be a credible salesman for Massachusetts because he does not believe in Massachusetts,” he said to the cheers of more than 100 people gathered in a cafeteria at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

In a question-and-answer session following his remarks, Patrick fielded a handful of inquiries about his role as executive vice president and general counsel of the Coca-Cola Company, which he left last year after a dispute with the company’s CEO. During Patrick’s tenure, the company dealt with a lawsuit alleging that the company held responsibility for human rights violations committed in a Colombian labor dispute.

At last night’s meeting, Patrick said that he still stood by a Coca-Cola investigation that he said “persuaded us that those allegations of a conspiracy were false.”

Earlier this month, Patrick signed a $2.1 million consulting contract with Coca-Cola that will stay in effect until the end of this year.

When asked about his stance on legislation which would limit installation of soda vending machines in schools, Patrick said that he has not yet taken a formal position.

But his response seemed to indicate that he favored looking at alternative methods to reduce child obesity.

“I’m not sure that keeping soda out of the schools will mean that the kids won’t go across the street to get the soda,” Patrick said. “I’m just not persuaded that talking about what is available in schools is all that we need to be talking about.”

Patrick said that although he thinks the real solution is universal health care mandated at the federal level, he believes the matter is so urgent that it must be implemented at the state level.

“Nothing is going to happen unless somebody is willing to spend political capital—and I am,” he said. “If I don’t get it done in my first term, throw me out.”

Briana Deutsch, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, said she liked having the opportunity to hear Patrick’s visions for the state in a small setting.

“I enjoyed it,” she said. “But I’m also interested in hearing more about what his actual plans of action are.”

Patrick’s appearance was the first in a “Meet the Democratic Candidates for Governor” series. He was introduced at the event by State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios ’90, who announced that he would be running for Middlesex district attorney next year.

—Staff writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu.