[statecom-discuss] Re: [2006team] Voices worth listening to (Globe column today in support of Grace)

[Mike Heichman]

Nat Fortune wrote:

>> The role of a loyal opposition cannot fall to a political entity as  
>> moribund as the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Even the Green- 
>> Rainbow Party fielded more candidates for statewide constitutional  
>> offices this year than the Republican Party did. Why not assign  that 
>> role to Mihos and Ross, who already proved that they cannot be  
>> intimidated?
>
>
> EILEEN MCNAMARA
> Voices worth listening to
>
> By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist  |  November 8, 2006
>
> There ought to be a place in a Patrick administration for Grace Ross  
> and Christy Mihos. Their questions made the Democratic nominee a  
> better candidate. Some of their solutions would make him an even  
> better governor.
>
> Ross and Mihos, respectively the Green-Rainbow and independent  
> candidates for governor, provided more than entertainment in the four  
> televised debates this fall. If their focus was sometimes narrow or  
> their tone sometimes harsh, their challenges to Deval L. Patrick and  
> to Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey were often laser  
> sharp. They forced Patrick to clarify his thinking on everything from  
> housing subsidies to higher education.
>
> They should not stop now.
>
> The vote yesterday was an unambiguous call for change in the State  
> House. But of all Healey's arguments against ending 16 years of  
> Republican rule in the governor's office, the one that most resonated  
> with voters of all ideologies was her evocation of the dangers of one- 
> party rule. It is no healthier on Beacon Hill than it is on Capitol  
> Hill, no less destructive when Democrats hold absolute power than  
> when Republicans do.
>
> The problem in Massachusetts is that there is no Republican Party. It  
> is a fiction that Republican governors here have labored under the  
> insurmountable veto threat of a progressive, free-spending  
> Legislature since William F. Weld was elected to the corner office in  
> 1990. Former Senate president Bill Bulger and former House speaker  
> Tom Finneran were more in tune with the fiscally conservative Weld  
> and his successor, Paul Cellucci, than they ever were with Michael  
> Dukakis, the last liberal Democrat to hold high office in the  
> Commonwealth. Both Weld and Cellucci got things done despite the  
> opposition of Democratic progressives in the Legislature who were,  
> and still are, a minority in their party.
>
> Governor Mitt Romney's failure to accomplish much in the past four  
> years speaks more to his disengagement from the affairs of this state  
> than to his relationship with the Democratic Legislature. It was  
> Romney who broke his vow to revive the Republican Party in  
> Massachusetts. Two years ago, his candidate-recruitment efforts ended  
> with the GOP losing seats in the Legislature. This year, Romney and  
> Healey, herself a past chairman of the state GOP, did not even try to  
> mount credible challenges to Democrat incumbents. That is shameful.
>
> The role of a loyal opposition cannot fall to a political entity as  
> moribund as the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Even the Green- 
> Rainbow Party fielded more candidates for statewide constitutional  
> offices this year than the Republican Party did. Why not assign that  
> role to Mihos and Ross, who already proved that they cannot be  
> intimidated?
>
> Mihos, the wealthy owner of a convenience store chain, bolted the GOP  
> to protest the stonewalling about the cost overruns and shoddy  
> workmanship of the Big Dig. He made government transparency the  
> cornerstone of his quixotic campaign. Yes, he often sounded like an  
> insufferable egotist. But why wouldn't we want him at the table in  
> January to press Patrick to nail down the financing for new programs  
> and the mechanism for delivering property tax relief?
>
> Ross, a community organizer and antipoverty activist, spoke for  
> ordinary working people and the poor in this campaign, insisting that  
> the major-party candidates address the concerns of residents living  
> paycheck to inadequate paycheck. Why wouldn't we want her at the  
> table to remind Patrick that she and her neighbors still live where  
> he came from?
>
> The worst of Mihos and Ross -- his bluster, her sanctimony -- could  
> bring out the best in Patrick. The best of Mihos and Ross -- his  
> commitment to accountability, her commitment to economic justice --  
> would challenge the Patrick administration to marry pragmatism to  
> idealism. That, after all, is what distinguishes campaigning from  
> governing. As Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick might say, let's get  
> started.
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