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Deval Patrick

By adamg - 12/3/08 - 9:35 pm

EaBo Clipper reports on today's anti-toll protest in East Boston, which he says included City Councilor Sal LaMattina thundering:

Governor Patrick tear down these tolls!

By adamg - 11/10/08 - 2:01 pm

If you only drive on the turnpike west of 128, you'll love the governor's plan to eliminate the turnpike authority. If you travel between 128 and downtown, though, you'll hate it: Patrick's proposing to ditch all tolls west of 128, but hike them inside 128 to pay for the Big Dig.

West of 128, the state highway department would take over maintenance of the road; east of it, say hello to your new Massport overlords.

By adamg - 11/1/08 - 3:56 pm

Somewhat lost in the coverage of Deval Patrick's new interest in State House ethics yesterday was his call to reduce the number of times local cities and towns have to to the legislature for permission to do various things. Mike Ball analyzes his call for greater home rule, in which he said:

The current home rule structure dates from the 1960s and guarantees that the Legislature and the Executive spend an inordinate amount of time deciding when and how localities can tax, borrow, regulate private and, and make rules for municipal elections. Forty percent of all legislation passed over the last two years was local laws that affect only one community. Sponsors of home rule bills are often forced to expend a great deal of time and political capital to get non-controversial, purely local matters moving and enacted, rather than working on matters of broader concern.

Naturally, one could argue this is tied to the Wilkerson case since half of it (the Dejavue part) centers around a holdover from the days of anti-Irish hatred on Beacon Hill - alone among Massachusetts cities and towns, Boston does not control its own liquor licenses, which are instead doled out by a state board. And the Wilkerson complaint alleges she used her influence in the senate to hold up a home-rule petition from Boston to eliminated a preliminary election in 2007 as a way of forcing councilors to put pressure on that board to give Dejavu a license.

By adamg - 10/15/08 - 3:20 pm

Both the Globe and the Herald are reporting Gov. Patrick will announce the elimination of 1,000 state jobs and a total of $700 million in budget cuts - which would still leave the state another $800 million to deal with an anticipated $1.5 billion shortfall.

By adamg - 10/14/08 - 9:27 pm

Pretty deep, the Outraged Liberal predicts, what with a potential state deficit now approaching $1.5 billion:

... Keep in mind Patrick is only working with a percentage of the budget that he controls. And there are several programs that -- for now at least -- are exempt, including health care, local aid and aid to local schools. And we are 3 1/2 months into the fiscal year, meaning a quarter of the money has probably been spent, leaving a smaller pool of cash to cut.

That translates into layoffs, lots of them, in agencies that provide services. But we're talking human services rather than transportation or public safety. ...

Meanwhile, David Bernstein reports that Jimmy Severino is busy screaming down on Long Island (or wherever he is these days) that Boston is run by Communists:

... Severin went on to say that on all issues that one could imagine, there is nothing differentiating the Boston City Council, Tom Menino, Communist China, Barack Obama, Rev. Wright, and William Ayers. He was quite serious. ...

By adamg - 10/8/08 - 5:36 pm

Daniel Mitchell, 7, a second-grader at the Bates School, shows Gov. Patrick and Mayor Menino where his apartment is.

Gov. Patrick came to the Washington-Beech housing project in Roslindale today to sign legislation that will result in the 1952 project replaced by a series of low- and moderate-income townhomes and apartments by 2012.

Trinity Boston, a private developer, will replace the current dormitory-style buildings on the 7.6-acre project with townhomes and a 72-unit apartment building at the corner of Washington and Beech streets, which will mainly house elderly residents. The project will cost $90 million; earlier this year the Boston Housing Authority won a $20-million federal grant to help pay for the work.

Artist's rendering of the new Washington-Beech. You're looking south on Washington, past Beech.

By adamg - 9/22/08 - 8:56 am

The police unions figure out a way to get around Deval Patrick's detail proposal and he figures out a way to get around them, at least on state road projects.

Outraged Liberal: He's come a long way, baby:

... Patrick's win reflects sound coalition-building politics. He worked with House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Terry Murray to present a united front in pursuing the change. And he didn't walk away, like Bill Weld, when the pressure was raised and loophole maneuvers commenced.

Obviously this latest move in the chess match will anger public employee unions. But with a looming ballot test on continuation of the state's income tax, Patrick and state leaders need to show they are doing their best to tackle spending. ...

Ed. note to Boston city councilors: You might want to remind your staffers to talk very quietly on Acela trains from New York, because you never know who might have no choice to hear them talking about the proper quotes their boss should give the Globe about the issue - because they don't realize just how loud they are. Bonus fun: You might want to ask any of your people if they were two cars ahead of the cafe car on the 6:03 p.m. train yesterday.

By adamg - 8/27/08 - 7:22 pm

Deval Patrick blogged answers to real-time questions from his fans earlier today on Blue Mass. Group.

By adamg - 8/13/08 - 10:14 am

First state pensioners, now detail-lovin' police, but there's an endgame in mind here and it's not necessarily Washington:

... Make no mistake, Patrick has an election in mind all right. It's the November referendum on Question 1, the income tax repeal. Polls suggest voters are unhappy enough that they could vote their wallet and not their best interests. Sacred cows need to fall.

If that means dealing with upset pensioners and police officers angry because they've been asked to do some dieting along with the rest of the state budget (and there will be a lot of that in the months ahead, particularly if the federal Medicaid waiver is slashed) that drama may only help convince fence sitters that Question 1 is a recipe for disaster. ...

By adamg - 7/24/08 - 8:30 am

So Vennochi writes an entire column on whether the state should throw another one of those no-sales-tax days and then, out of the blue, ends the thing like this:

... What's Patrick really thinking?

Maybe that his friend Barack Obama is going to be president, that he will be going with him to Washington, and that the Massachusetts budget mess will be someone else's problem.

So that's it, then, Joan? Patrick has gotten bored with state government faster than Bill Weld? Or did you just realize on deadline your column on the sales tax was a paragraph short? Or as the Outraged Liberal puts it:

There's a name for stories and columns that praise/criticize an individual for an action that requires group action, then uses the standard political rumor of the day as an explanation for said action.

It's called phoning it in.

By adamg - 7/16/08 - 8:42 am

Third Decade doesn't get why the state plans to rescue the turnpike authority from its crushing debt while refusing to rescue the MBTA from its crushing debt.

The Outraged Liberal asks questions, too:

By adamg - 6/14/08 - 8:55 pm

Phillip Greenspun, a pilot who can't stand Patrick, says that's what he's heard - specifically, an $11-million Lear 45, which is designed for flights of more than 2,000 miles.

By rsiasoco - 6/12/08 - 10:57 pm

By now, everyone's heard that Governor Patrick's daughter is a n out and proud lesbian. Good (or planned?) timing with the Boston Pride festivities this weekend. There's a full article on Towleroad, one of my favorite bloggers out there.

By adamg - 4/25/08 - 11:07 pm

Blue Mass. Group has the details on a proclamation by Patrick in support of a national prayer day organized by a fundamentalist group that specifically excludes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and even many Protestants from leading its prayer events that day (see its coordinator application).

By adamg - 4/16/08 - 5:42 pm
Something fishy

Not to carp, but the governor looks like his mussels are tiring and he's haddock up to there, coddamnit. Definitely seems like he's in need of a good pint of Bass. Scott Wachtler from the Bulletin Newspapers, Inc. reeled in this photo at yesterday's annual fish release at Jamaica Pond.

Earlier:
Deval Patrick is up to something fishy.

By adamg - 4/15/08 - 1:55 pm

Steve Garfield is on the scene with a video camera as Patrick, local kids release fish into Jamaica Pond.

By adamg - 4/11/08 - 8:42 am
By adamg - 4/10/08 - 7:48 am

Blue Mass. Group has the video of his speech on paying to repair bridges before they fall down and helping the state economy.

The Outraged Liberal, meanwhile, wonders why the Globe couldn't be bothered to do the same basic thing, for people who actually want to see what he said, rather than reading an analysis of Treasurer Tim opposing the plan:

By adamg - 4/4/08 - 9:35 am

That's because Joe Keohane does a much better job, explaining why today’s Adrian Walker column is sub-par, even for him:

... [T]oday's column on Deval Patrick’s book deal not only contains the most lazily pedestrian takeaway imaginable (Deval needs to prove he's going to stick around and govern), but comes about a week and a half after BZ's Jon Keller broke the story in the first place, and, I would argue, five days after the rest of the press stopped intensively covering it. ... Why, oh lord, do the good ones always take the buyouts?

By adamg - 4/2/08 - 10:53 am

The Globe covers the Blue Mass. Group posting by Deval Patrick's chief of staff.

The Globe, of course, doesn't provide a link so people can see the posting for themselves if they don't happen to know the site's URL.

And then there's a slightly jarring note for people who actually read the site. After identifying the site as "left-leaning" and saying the post is proof Patrick is moving "back to his base," the paper adds:

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