Deval Patrick – Can he govern as well as he campaigns?

About halfway through Gov. Deval Patrick’s first term in office, we wrote that he rated as one of the most ineffective governors in Massachusetts history. Not only had he committed some major political blunders when he first came intoz office (such as giving his wife a huge budget to re-do the governor’s office and naming a state senator to a $125,000 per year do-nothing job), but he accomplished nothing. He proved totally incapable of working with the legislature. For four years, nothing got done on Beacon Hill, with the death of the casino bill this summer being the epitome of the lack of achievement of his administration, with the governor bogged down over minutiae rather than seeing the big picture.

However, on the campaign trail these past few months, Gov. Patrick has shown himself to be the type of leader whom we thought we had elected four years ago. He comes across as a committed public servant who is able to articulate what needs to be done in order to improve the state of Massachusetts for every citizen.

Hopefully, the political naivete that Gov. Patrick displayed when he first came into office is a thing of the past. Moreover, even though he did not see eye to eye with the legislative leadership on many issues, he was supported by them during this election.

So we’re hoping that the next four years of a Deval Patrick governorship, despite the many challenges facing us, will be as exciting and progressive as he has said it will be on the campaign trail. We hope he has a plan to jump start his new administration quickly in the manner of a new First 100 Days, rather than allowing the next four years to be just a continuation of the first four.

The voters who carried him to an unexpectedly easy victory want action. And they want it now.