Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick bucked the anti-incumbent, pro-Republican trend and won a second term Tuesday with the help of some of the political advisers who hope to do the same in two years for his friend President Barack Obama.
by Glen Johnson
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick bucked the anti-incumbent, pro-Republican trend and won a second term Tuesday with the help of some of the political advisers who hope to do the same in two years for his friend President Barack Obama.
Patrick, a black Democrat with a resume similar to Obama’s, defeated Republican Charles Baker, a former health care executive.
"We fought the good fight, folks," Baker told his supporters after placing a congratulatory call to Patrick. "But it’s important that all of us get behind the governor and do all that we can to make sure that he succeeds in pulling our economy out of the doldrums and getting it back on the right track."
With 86 percent of state’s precincts reporting, Patrick had 48 percent to Baker’s 42 percent. Independent Timothy Cahill was in third place with 8 percent.
The Republican Governors Association, fearing Cahill would play spoiler, and hoping to knock off the president’s fellow Chicagoan and Harvard Law graduate, spent millions on ads attacking not just Patrick but Cahill. The two-term state treasurer bolted the Democratic Party last year and appealed to the same fiscally conservative voters Baker targeted.
Baker attacked Patrick for eight tax hikes — including a 25 percent increase in the state sales tax — and a projected $2 billion deficit. Patrick countered by citing investments in health care, public education and emerging industries such as clean energy and life sciences.
Patrick, a 53-year-old married father of two daughters, rose from childhood poverty, attended Massachusetts’ prestigious Milton Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Law on scholarship, and served in the Clinton administration Justice Department.
After a corporate law career, he made his first bid for elective office in 2006 with the help of Chicago political consultants David Axelrod and David Plouffe, who would go on to run Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Patrick’s campaign slogan of "Together We Can" presaged Obama’s talk of "Hope."
After a rocky start triggered by an expensive office redecoration and pricey upgrade to a Cadillac for his official transportation, Patrick settled into the governor’s job but found himself coping with the national recession. A reluctant cost-cutter, he nonetheless trimmed over $4 billion in state spending and worked with a Democratic Legislature to deliver four on-time budgets.
In seeking re-election, Patrick cast his campaign not as a quest for personal accomplishment, but as repayment for his free education.
"I’m grateful, and all I’m trying to do is give back the same better chance that I got," he said.
Baker gave up a nearly $2 million salary at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to run for Patrick’s $140,000-a-year job as governor. Cahill had to withstand twin embarrassments: His campaign manager and two other senior advisers quit in late September, followed a week later by his running mate, Paul Loscocco.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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Tea time: GOP nears House control, piling up wins DAVID ESPO,AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans marched confidently to the brink of House control Tuesday night in midterm elections shadowed by recession, promising a conservative majority certain to challenge President Barack Obama at virtually every turn. The GOP gained Senate seats, as well, but a takeover there appeared out of reach.
"I’ll never let you down," House Republican leader John Boehner, the likely next speaker, told tea party supporters in his home state of Ohio.
Among the House Democrats who tasted defeat was Rep. Tom Perriello, a first-termer for whom Obama campaigned just before the election.
In Senate races, tea party favorites Rand Paul in Kentucky and Marco Rubio in Florida coasted to easy Senate victories, overcoming months of withering Democratic attacks on their conservative views. But Christine O’Donnell lost badly in Delaware, for a seat that Republican strategists once calculated would be theirs with ease.
Republicans needed a gain of 40 seats for a House majority. With polls still open on the West Coast, they had won 23 and led for 37 more.
They picked up five Democratic-held seats in Pennsylvania, and three each in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia.
Democrats conceded nothing while they still had a chance. "Let’s go out there and continue to fight," Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted supporters in remarks before television cameras while the polls were still open in much of the country.
But not long after she spoke, Democratic incumbents in both houses began falling.
With unemployment at 9.6 percent nationally, interviews with voters revealed an extraordinarily sour electorate, stressed financially and poorly disposed toward the president, the political parties and the federal government.
About four in 10 voters said they were worse off financially than two years ago, according to preliminary exit poll results and pre-election surveys. More than one in three said their votes were an expression of opposition to Obama. More than half expressed negative views about both political parties. Roughly 40 percent of voters considered themselves supporters of the conservative tea party movement. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems.
The preliminary findings were based on Election Day and pre-election interviews with more than 9,000 voters.
All 435 seats in the House were on the ballot, plus 37 in the Senate. An additional 37 governors’ races gave Republicans ample opportunity for further gains halfway through Obama’s term, although Andrew Cuomo was elected in New York for the office his father once held.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.