Approximately 18 Democratic presidential hopefuls are attempting to remove President Donald Trump from the White House in 2020.
Getting to Know Governor Deval Patrick
Better late than never.
Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently entered the race to represent the Democratic Party as the nominee for President of The United States in 2020.
Governor Patrick brings another moderate to the race, but is it too late to challenge the likes of former Vice President Joe Biden for the moderate vote?
On Wednesday night when 10 of Patrick’s Democratic opponents debated each other at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, the New Deal Democrats at Morehouse College scheduled a speaking engagement for the former Massachusetts governor to address students and student journalists.
The problem, no one really showed up.
Reportedly, two students showed up only after organizers saw them pass by in the hallway and asked them to attend.
“The campaign is telling us that they had to catch a flight, said Julian Hemmings, founder and president of Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ (HBCU) New Deal Democrats.
Previously, the New Deal Democrats hosted speaking engagements for South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
The organization planned to host Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) yesterday.
Mayor Buttigieg spoke to an audience of 150 people during his visit to Morehouse.
Sen. Harris spoke to 3,000 people during her visit to the HBCU.
The New Deal Democrats hope that they can reschedule another speaking engagement for Patrick at Atlanta’s Morehouse College in the future.
“It was an honor and pleasure that he wanted to speak with student journalists and New Deal Democrats,” Hemmings said. “We hope that we could do this again.”
To be fair, Hemmings said that Deval received the invite on Tuesday, the day before the scheduled speaking engagement.
He only announced his presidential campaign last week.
Although the Patrick campaign currently finds itself behind the eight ball, overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds is nothing new to the presidential candidate.
Many saw his campaign for the governorship as a long shot, and only a springboard to his “real” aspiration of becoming a United States senator.
Patrick prevailed in his bid to become the first African-American governor of Massachusetts.
In the New York Times, David S. Bernstein wrote, “In 2005, he believed that Massachusetts needed to shake off the cautious skepticism that had led to 16 years of Republican governors elected to temper a Democratic-led legislature.
“Mr. Patrick offered himself as an optimistic, ambitious leader, rallying people to believe that their government can do great things.
“Today, looking at the national picture, he views himself as the cure for the Democratic Party struggling to respond to a divisive Republican president. As he sees them, there are presidential candidates who retreat in timidity, others who respond with divisiveness in kind, and those whose calculated attempts at inspiration have fallen flat with voters.
“He sees himself as the only one who can present genuine, optimistic leadership to lead the party—and the country—forward to a post-Trump era.”
Patrick has seemingly called Vice President Biden, Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) uninspiring, while seeing divisiveness coming from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Sanders.
“I’m not running to be president of the Democrats. I am running to be president of the United States. There’s a difference,” Patrick explained.
To see what a Patrick presidency could look like, one can look at the Patrick governorship.
Forbes Magazine reported that although Patrick proclaims to provide a moderate approach to politics, fiscally he might have more in common with his more liberal opponents.
As Massachusetts’ governor, Patrick had a habit of raising taxes.
Patrick raised the sales tax from 5.0 percent to 6.25 percent in his first year in the governor’s mansion, an increase of 25 percent.
The presidential hopeful also raised taxes on hotels, satellite television, hotel visits, liquor and food.
He pushed for more tax hikes in his second term, proposing to raise the Massachusetts state income tax from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent.
Many saw his plan as having the potential to adversely affect small businesses, individuals and families.
The Democratic-led Massachusetts legislature killed Patrick’s proposed tax hikes.
“Deval Patrick is many things, but a moderate is certainly not one of them,” said Paul D. Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “Massachusetts was fortunate that many of his more radical proposals were shot down by state legislature—despite Democrats maintaining supermajority control throughout his eight years in office.
“The legislature may have been under the absolute control of his own political party, but Patrick’s relationship with legislative leadership was rocky at best.”
But Patrick did have his share of accomplishments as made obvious by his reelection to a second term as governor of Massachusetts.
He passed a pension reform bill that attempted to save Massachusetts $5 billion over 30 years and reduce the state’s underfunded $17 billion pension liability.
As governor, Patrick legalized casino gambling, which he said would bring jobs and money to the state.
In January 2010, Patrick signed an education reform bill that vastly increased the number of charter schools in addition to giving school superintendents the leeway to overhaul school districts.
He also made the state eligible for $250 million in stimulus package money, which went to schools.
“We are standing up for children,” he said at the time. “We are showing those hungry minds in our classrooms that we believe in them.”
In 2009, he signed an ethics reform bill that sought to root out corruption in political campaign financing.
The bill doled out harsher punishment for campaign law violations and banned practically all gifts to public officials in the state.
