Governor Patricks trips for Obama draw fire

Michael Levenson Boston Globe Over the blasting horns of a marching band, Brian Moran, the chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, yelled into the stands. It was minutes before kickoff at Hampton Universitys football stadium on Saturday. Governor Patrick from Massachusetts is here! Moran bellowed, as Deval Patrick waved and the fans stared, or nodded. Hes here getting the vote out! This is the glamorous life of Patrick, campaign surrogate for his friend, President Obama. On a swing through two college campuses in this battleground state on Saturday, the governor spoke to small crowds, shook hands at Obama campaign offices, and posed for photographs. The governor has been traveling the country like this since January, attending dozens of Democratic events from Washington State to Iowa to South Carolina. Now, with polls in the presidential race tightening and problems mounting at home, his travel has taken on added sense of urgency and an edge of political peril. Republicans have been increasingly vocal in their criticism of Patricks trips, arguing he needs to be in Massachusetts when inmates are being released because of the state drug lab crisis, a national meningitis outbreak has been linked to a Framingham pharmacy, and the governors casino compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag has been rejected by the federal government. On Friday, when Patrick was campaigning for Obama in North Carolina, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson accused the governor of gallivanting around the country instead of focusing on the drug lab crisis. There are so many things that are unraveling now, Hodgson, a Republican, said on a conference call organized by the Massachusetts Republican Party. He ought to be here right now, managing the crisis. At the same time, with less than a month until the election, the Obama campaign believes that Patrick, as Mitt Romneys successor, can serve as a particularly potent critic of the Republican nominee. The campaign also wants to use Patricks uplifting oratory to energize swing-state Democrats who may have been dispirited by Obamas lackluster performance in the first presidential debate. He is most often deployed to speak to solidly Democratic activists and party diehards, not undecided voters.

Standing in the parking lot of a strip mall on the Hampton campus, Patrick delivered a short speech in a booming voice to about 40 Obama volunteers, part of an effort to motivate them before Mondays deadline to register voters in Virginia. Show up! Make the phone calls, and knock on the doors! Patrick exhorted. Go and talk to your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues, your cranky uncle you know the one youre never supposed to talk about politics with at Thanksgiving dinner. Along the way, he encountered some quizzical stares and murmurs of who is that? but also genuine enthusiasm from Obama volunteers who have seen him on the Sunday talk shows or watched his speech at the Democratic convention. Ive seen you on Meet The Press, one volunteer, John Rovenolt, exclaimed when he met Patrick. You really knocked em dead! Patrick laughed. In an interview Saturday, he insisted he can govern and handle his political duties at the same time. I know what my day job is, and I do it, and Ive continued to do it while Ive been on the road, Patrick said after giving a pep talk to about 30 Obama volunteers at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. He said, for example, that over the last three days, as he traveled to a gay rights gala in New York and to North Carolina and Virginia to stump for Obama, he had spoken to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about the rejection of the casino compact, to the former prosecutor he appointed to oversee the drug lab crisis, and to members of his Cabinet. So I dont think the people of the Commonwealth need to worry about where my focus is, Patrick said. Through it all, he has stayed relentlessly upbeat. On Saturday, he wore a Virginia for Obama button and traveled on an Obama bus with an entourage that included Reggie Love, the presidents former body man and a onetime Duke University basketball player. Their first stop was a campaign office on the campus of Hampton University, a historically black college. Patrick walked from table to table, thanking the volunteers and offering words of encouragement. He spoke at the DNC, said Clifton Spriggs, the phone bank captain. Hes from Romneys hometown. A few blocks away, Patrick mingled with Hampton parents and alumni at a tailgate party, chatting amid the smoke wafting from grills and R. Kelly songs on a sound system.

You spoke so well at the convention, Jemarn Thorpe, who owns a commercial cleaning business, told Patrick. Man, seeing you on TV, I thought you were a preacher. Patrick smiled and thanked Thorpe. The governor said his next trip may be to Hofstra University on Long Island to join the media spin room after the next presidential debate on Tuesday. Patrick, who frequently urges Democrats to grow a backbone and forcefully defend their values, made clear he was not entirely happy with Obamas last debate performance. The president really bends over backwards to be respectful of his challenger and of his critics, and that frustrates people sometimes, and it frustrates me, too, he said. But in the end, I think its probably better leadership. The governor, who was flying home to Massachusetts on Saturday night, said he is not sure where else he may be sent in the coming days. I go where the campaign wants me, he said. It all blurs.

Problems at home could hamper Patricks ambitions

Glen Johnson Boston Globe Governor Deval Patrick participated in a bus tour for President Obamas reelection campaign this weekend, but events back home are a reminder that the road to the White House for Obama now and, potentially, him in the future is littered with deep potholes. The still-unfolding state drug lab case, and the revelation that a state-regulated Massachusetts company was distributing tainted steroids causing deaths across the country, have the potential to mar Patricks aura of executive leadership. That will be his calling card when he leaves office in 2014 and returns to the business world or, potentially, seeks higher office as a presidential candidate in 2016. The governor, a prominent Obama surrogate, went to North Carolina on Friday to rally campaign staffers and volunteers both in the banking center of Charlotte and the capital of Raleigh. He then spent Saturday making whistle-stop visits to three Virginia colleges: Hampton University, Old Dominion, and William & Mary. University of Richmond Law School professor Carl Tobias says deploying Patrick in such a manner makes perfect sense, given his dynamic speaking style and the reaction he stirred with his address at the Democratic National Convention. I dont think its any secret that the Obama folks are hoping to have very strong student support. That part of the state has a lot of students and its a heavy voting area, so hes likely to be very helpful there, said Tobias.

A campaign statement announcing Patricks participation read like one that could have been issued by his press staff back at the State House. Obama believes in investing in our future by reforming our schools, producing more homegrown energy, rebuilding our roads, bridges and broadband systems, and accelerating American innovation, it said. The three Is in the governors own stump speech are investment, infrastructure, and innovation, as in making the spending decisions necessary to build a better-educated workforce and the industries vital to a competitive economy. The challenge is balancing the work on the road with the problems back at home. From managing the state budget through a recession to fueling growth industries such as biotech, Patrick has assembled a record over six years in office that would make him an odds-on favorite for reelection were he to seek a third term something he has already said he will not do. But in a possible future campaign for the presidency, or even a confirmation for, say, a Supreme Court nomination, problems with the state Parole Board exposed after the killing of Woburn Police Office John Jack Maguire, or the more recent drug cases, can mar Patricks leadership narrative. The Annie Dookhan case carries the specter of freeing more than 1,000 convicted drug offenders who could commit fresh crimes. The legal system from which the Harvard Law graduate emanates, and which he could join as a justice, for example, faces an epic trek to recovery. Meanwhile, New England Compounding Centers distribution of tainted steroids is replete with similarly eye-catching numbers. Already more than a dozen people have died, and there is a potential that some 14,000 more people are at risk for fungal meningitis. The twin perils underscore why the governor moved swiftly in each instance. He brought in David Meier, a respected former prosecutor now doing criminal defense work, to oversee the investigation into the drug lab case. Meier briefed reporters on Friday while Patrick traveled. And the oft-placid Patrick did not equivocate this past week when he accused New England Compounding of misleading state regulators by performing work outside the scope of its license. Both the governors official and political staffs say that going forward, he will not be distracted even by the time he is spending prospecting for Obama and raising his own national profile. It starts with a daily 7:45 a.m. conference call with his staff and continues with e-mails, phone calls, and meetings through the work week and weekend. The governor is very aware that he has a day job, said Alex Goldstein, who runs Patricks political committee.

He has been very action-oriented, and people see he has been quick and decisive and responding with the full force of the tools at his disposal.

States in trouble; wheres Patrick?

Joan Vennochi Boston Globe Springing thousands of drug dealers from prison because of tainted evidence at a poorly-run state lab is bad enough. But now, a lack of oversight by the same Massachusetts agency responsible for the drug lab may have also contributed to an outbreak of fungal meningitis that killed at least a dozen people around the country. And where is Governor Deval Patrick on this? When hes not prepping for Sunday talk shows, hes blaming a rogue chemist for 10 years of tainted evidence. When hes not traveling, hes accusing the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak of misleading regulators and operating outside its license. Isnt it his job to make sure his appointees are watching the chemist do her job? Isnt it his job to make sure regulators responsible for public health are regulating? This isnt about giving speeches or going on Meet the Press. Its about governing. Speaking to Democrats in Charlotte last month, Patrick denounced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a failed Massachusetts governor who was more interested in having a job than doing it. Lately, Patrick seems more interested in reelecting President Obama than answering for troubling developments on his watch. A scandal of historic proportions rocked the now-shuttered state lab. Thousands of drug samples were mishandled over the past nine years by chemist Annie Dookhan. The tainted drug evidence lead to the convictions and jailing of suspects who will now go free. As many as 34,000 cases may be affected. Patrick pledged a full investigation. But he also ducked personal responsibility. Dookhan was arrested after she told State Police she messed up. John Auerbach, the commissioner of the Department of Public Health, whose department oversaw the drug lab, resigned. His boss, JudyAnn Bigby, the secretary of Health and Human Services, reports to Patrick. It would be interesting to read all the memos and e-mails over the last year between DPH, HHS, and the governors office concerning this matter. As always, the key question is: Who knew what when?

David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute, a conservative think tank, described the drug lab fiasco to the Boston Herald as a total failure of the chain of command. The governor has to know his appointees are doing their jobs and the appointees need to watch their own people. Added Tuerck: A scandal of this magnitude calls into question the leadership of the governor. Its a systemic failure. What happened at New England Compounding Center, the Framingham company whose injectable steroids are at the center of another crisis, also sounds like systemic failure. The Massachusetts pharmacy has been linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis which, as of last week, sickened at least 137 people and killed 14; about 13,000 people across the country have been injected with the steroid. Patrick tried to get out in front of the bad news by accusing the pharmacy of misleading regulators and operating outside its license by shipping large batches of drugs across the country. Maybe it did. But this also raises questions about oversight by the state DPH. A New York Times report about one of the victims who died noted that Massachusetts has only five inspectors for more than 1,000 compounding pharmacies that make drugs. On NBCs Meet the Press, Patrick recently called out Romney for turning his back on half the country. But isnt Patrick turning his back on voters who elected him? As the Lowell Suns Peter Lucas wrote in a recent column: Patrick, on the taxpayers dime, has traveled the world on so-called trade missions promoting the state and himself, written two books with hefty cash advances, roamed the country promoting them, has accepted political speaking engagements across the nation, and is now raising money and campaigning nationally for President Barack Obama. In the meantime, he governs Massachusetts sometimes. Yet Patrick remains popular with voters a recent poll gave him a 57 percent favorability rating. Perhaps voters are distracted by the presidential contest or mesmerized by the fiery showdown between Senator Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. Or maybe, Bay State voters just expect their governors to seek the national spotlight and leave their troubles at home. If it works for voters, it works for Patrick, too.