Bill Manzi.com

Doug Rubin sent an email to the Governor Patrick email list yesterday, candidly admitting error over the events of the last few weeks, with emphasis on the Walsh appointment. Despite that “error” Rubin makes the case for a look at the entire Patrick record, asking folks to concentrate on the bigger issues that Governor Patrick has been dealing with. From the Rubin letter;

The past three weeks have been difficult. We clearly made mistakes, and could have (and should have) handled the HEFA issue much better. I take responsibility for that, and promise we will learn from this and continue to work to improve our performance. You deserve nothing less.

However, it is also important to remember that Govenor Patrick has a long-term plan, that we are executing that plan every day with real results, and that the Governor is succeeding in bringing meaningful change to the Commonwealth. In the same time period as the coverage of the Marian Walsh appointment, Governor Patrick:

Announced federal education funding for Massachusetts that he was personally involved in securing in the federal stimulus package that included:
$168M to bring all MA schools up to foundation level spending (a strong commitment to education even with a worsening budget situation),
$280M for special education funding,
$162M for higher education, which allows UMass to roll back fee increases for students.
Worked with legislative leaders to move three major bills through the Legislature:
Passed an ethics bill out of the House that is based upon the Governor’s legislation,
Passed a pension reform bill out of the Senate a little over a week after the Governor announced his pension proposal, successfully tackling some of the more egregious pension loopholes and abuses that previous administrations have been unable to eliminate,
Passed a transportation reform bill out of the Senate, and secured a commitment from the House to pass its own version within the next few weeks.
Delivered $764M in FMAP funding for health care in MA.
Launched the Mass Recovery Plan, including the announcement of eight new infrastructure projects and a groundbreaking at the Chelsea Bridge (150 construction jobs).
Worked with MEFA to make $300M available for affordable, fixed-rate student loans to make college more accessible. MEFA was one of only a few agencies in the country able to do this in a very difficult credit market.
Received public support from the Speaker and House Ways and Means Chair to limit the number of earmarks in the budget, an issue first proposed by the Governor.
Received public support from the House to consider eliminating the telecom exemption, a Patrick initiative that would provide much-needed revenue for cities and towns.
Announced $108M in funding from several state and federal affordable housing programs and tax credits to help support 39 affordable rental housing projects, yielding more than 2,000 affordable housing units across Massachusetts, while helping to create thousands of jobs.
Held a live town hall on NECN, his monthly live call-in show on WTKK, and will host a live, prime-time town hall on Monday night on Springfield TV to answer questions from the citizens of the Commonwealth.
All this in the same three-week span!

I am not in any way trying to downplay the impact of the Walsh appointment. I am trying to make the point that we have had a plan from day one, that we are executing on that plan with real results, and that even though we make mistakes we are delivering on the change agenda of Governor Patrick.

Now, this doesn’t take into account the past 12-18 months, which most observers agree were very successful for the Governor, or the next few months, which look promising with ethics, pension and transportation reform in various stages of moving through the legislative process.

Other than destination-resort casinos and a few other initiatives, Governor Patrick has succeeded in getting his major initiatives passed and implemented. That is a record of which we should all be proud.

Doug Rubin

The recognition of the damage done to the Governor is apparent, and now comes the damage control. It is way to early to be counting out a sitting Governor, and especially one with the skill sets of Deval Patrick. With more bad news coming financially my own view is that the Governor needs to be a true advocate of real reform. People want to pull together but they need to know that the system is fair, and that excess has been wrung out. Shared sacrifice should mean shared sacrifice. Fighting for that real reform, even against a major interest group, will provide Governor Patrick with some badly needed political relief.