Patrick: More Dems may challenge GOP’s Brown
Governor Deval Patrick said today that more Democrats may enter the race for US Senator Scott Brown’s seat, but he would not identify them.
“It’s a great field of Democrats, and there are others as well, and I don’t think the field is closed yet,’’ the governor said during his monthly call-in show on WTKK-FM. “I have had conversations with others who are thinking about it. And I’m just going to tease you with that.’’
Brown, the lone Republican in the state’s 12-member congressional delegation, is seeking his first full, six-year term after winning a special election in January 2010 to replace the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Prompted by the hosts, Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, Patrick praised three who have been mentioned as potential candidates – David F. D’Alessandro, the former chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services; Larry Lucchino, the president and chief executive of the Boston Red Sox; and Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor and outgoing White House adviser on consumer protection issues.
“I don’t know her well,’’ Patrick said of Elizabeth Warren. “I know her reputation, which is sterling, and her record, which has a lot of depth in financial services and oversight and transparency issues… I don’t know whether she’s going to be a candidate or not. I have not talked to her.’’
The field thus far includes Bob Massie, an activist who ran for lieutenant governor in 1994; Alan Khazei, a co-founder of City Year; Thomas P. Conroy, a state representative from Wayland; Setti Warren, the mayor of Newton; Marisa DeFranco, an immigration lawyer; and Herb Robinson, a software designer and musician.
James Coyne King, a corporate lawyer from Dover, has also filed papers to run.
During the hour-long show, Patrick also touched on the ongoing gambling talks at the State House and the nation’s looming debt crisis, which he blamed on Tea Party Republicans in Congress who have refused to consider taxes as part of a plan to avert a government default.
“The notion that there are people the president is dealing with who would gladly drive this economy over a cliff to derail this presidency is incredibly discouraging,’’ said Patrick, a Democrat who is a friend and ally of President Obama. “I’m talking about the Tea Partiers. And that’s a real worry for the country.’’
The governor said it was not clear yet what affect a default might have on Massachusetts, because the US Treasury has not yet decided what bills it will and will not pay. But veterans’ services and Medicaid benefits could be affected, Patrick said.
“It’s a serious, serious threat, the scope of which I can’t tell you,’’ he said.
Patrick also sounded more hopeful than he has in the past that his closed-door talks with House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray will lead to the legalization of casinos this fall.
Patrick said the three leaders are past the point of debate and are trying to figure how to best to establish expanded gambling in the state. The issues they are confronting include tax rates and the makeup of a gambling commission to oversee the casinos, he said.
Asked if a casino bill, which has failed multiple times in recent years, will pass when it is debated in September, Patrick said: “I think it will. It’s really important to the speaker, and the jobs and revenue are really important to us as a Commonwealth.’’
That tone is a marked shift from earlier this year, when Patrick had soured on the issue and complained that casino bills “suck all the oxygen’’ out of the State House.
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