Deval L. Patrick '78: Patrick Fights for Chance to 'Finish What He Started'

It is 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning when Massachusetts Governor Democrat Deval L. Patrick ’78 strolls into the Knights of Columbus Center in West Roxbury, Mass. for a meet-and-greet with AARP members from the neighborhood. Wearing khaki slacks, a blue button-down shirt, and a brown leather jacket, his gait is easy, and a smile lights his face.

The first African-American governor of Massachusetts, Patrick comes from the South Side of Chicago and was educated primarily in Massachusetts, at Milton Academy, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School.

Patrick is a short, attractive man. He is the sort of man with whom older women—who were moments before complaining about how he has done little to improve Social Security—want to be photographed. He is the sort of man who does the electric slide while exiting the building.

At the Knights of Columbus Center, those gathered are mindful that it is ten days before election day. A poll from the previous week shows that Patrick is five points ahead of his opponent, Charles D. Baker ’79. Pundits say the G.O.P. is poised to take the U.S. House of Representatives, if not the Senate.

Two years ago, Massachusetts was a powerhouse of support for U.S. President Barack Obama. Earlier this year, however, the state elected Scott P. Brown, a Republican, as its newest senator. National disappointment with Democratic leadership appears to be running high.

But Patrick, who is fighting to defend his incumbent position as governor, appeals to the room of senior citizens, asking them to allow him to finish his work begun in his first term, which centered around public education, health care coverage, and job creation during a time of economic crisis.

EDUCATING A GOVERNOR

Those who have known him the longest say that they always recognized Patrick’s leadership potential.

“I could see a great future for him,” says Sondra J. Brigandi, Patrick’s neighbor from the South Side of Chicago who has known him since he was seven years old.

In 1970, Patrick, who was born two years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, landed a spot at the elite Milton Academy, thanks to a program called “A Better Chance” that helps send gifted students of color to top schools.

At a time when the wound of racism stung the nation, Patrick impressed his classmates as a “consensus builder” who sought to bridge racial divides.

“Patrick made friends very easily and across all kinds of boundaries,” says Daniel Gregory, a Milton friend who has financially supported Patrick’s governorship campaign. “He brought people together, no matter what race you were, what religion you were.”

George Chase, another Milton classmate, says that the “very sincere” and “very genuine” attitude Patrick had when talking with other people may be one reason why “everyone liked him [and] respected him.”

What Patrick has done as governor in the past four years “reflects the personality he had in high school, which was his patience,” says Chase, who adds that he had seen Patrick’s potential. “He always seemed like someone who had incredibly high ambition...He was always serious about what he was trying to accomplish.”

From Milton, Patrick went on to Harvard, where the English concentrator continued to win over friends among both faculty and students with his amiable character.

“I had some amazing teachers, and in particular the House Masters at Dunster House,” Patrick says, referring to James Vorenberg and his wife. “The two of them were my parents and have remained so until he passed away.”

For Charles W. Breaux, Jr. ’78, Patrick’s four-year roommate in Holworthy and Dunster, the candidate’s character was an early sign of a successful political career: “For a moment I thought he was to become the first Black president,” Breaux says.

Breaux remembers the young Patrick as a personal friend who cooked well, beat him at squash, and drank beer with him in their job as bartenders for Harvard Student Agencies.

Since Patrick did not come from a wealthy family, he had to take different kinds of “weird jobs” to support himself, according to Breaux.

The two once signed up to work for a traffic flow study, that required them to wake up at 6 a.m., go to the designated spot along highways outside Boston, and count cars while listening to jazz and drinking hot coffee grabbed from a Dunkin’ Donuts in Central Square.

Despite his rise to power, Patrick has remained unchanged at his core, his friends say.

“He brings his past forward with him,” Gregory says, citing an instance when Patrick named his dog after one of his teachers at Milton.

What has changed is that “he’s learnt to hone his skills to work on behalf of his people,” says Anna L. Waring, a Milton classmate and longtime friend.

GENERATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Looking out at a mostly white-haired crowd in West Roxbury, with The Temptations crooning “My Girl” in the background, Patrick speaks of what he calls generational responsibility. He references the ways in which he believes the Baby Boomers have failed to live up to the standards of their parents’ generation, which fought in World War II, created the social safety net in America, and launched the Civil Rights movement.

“That whole idea of generational responsibility, that each of us in our time is supposed to do what we can to make it better for those who come behind us, has been missing I think from our commerce, from our governing for a long time now,” Patrick says. “And we’re trying to bring that back. We’re trying to model the lesson you taught us about generational responsibility.”

For Patrick, generational responsibility means investing in public education, health care, and job creation.

“It’s about finishing what we started,” he says.

He references Massachusetts as the state that leads in student achievement due to his education reform, which involved making it easier to shut down failing schools, encouraging innovation in education, increasing access to charter schools in poorly performing districts, and spearheading a campaign to close the achievement gap.

Patrick also wants to make the public option for health care more affordable in Massachusetts, which has become a national model for public health care, boasting a 97.5-percent insurance rate.

A third element of Patrick’s platform is job creation in the state in this time of economic crisis. Massachusetts is currently the second-leading state in terms of economic growth, according to Patrick, in part, he says, due to local job creation programs.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE?

Patrick was the dark horse candidate in 2006, and despite a grim national outlook, he refutes claims that there is a pervasive sense of disappointment with the Democratic Party.

“I think that I hear that from pundits and pollsters, but if I’d listened to pundits and pollsters four years ago, I wouldn’t be in this job,” Patrick says. “I think that what is at stake in this election is a choice of values, whether we’re going to be about generational responsibility or whether we’re going to return to the slogans and cliches that sound good but frankly are the reason we are in this national economic mess to begin with.”

Boston Mayor Democrat Thomas M. Menino is also campaigning for Patrick, but his endorsement on Saturday morning is measured.

“For some of us who are married, do you always agree with your husband or wife?” Menino asks the audience. “I don’t either. Same with the governor, we don’t always agree with him either, right? But you know something? He’s the best thing we have. He cares about you.”

Patrick has not shied away from negative campaigning.

“Charlie Baker’s answer to unemployment is to put 5,000 more people out of work and to push 12,000 people off of unemployment insurance benefits in this economy, and I’m not making it up,” Patrick says. “I think we can do better than that because I think we are better than that.”

But Patrick’s goal is still fundamentally the same as it was in his Milton days. In a response to a question about race, he says that he seeks to unify, not divide.

“What I’m focusing on is how we lift everybody,” Patrick says, “not how we tear each other down, not what our differences are.”