Left In Lowell

At least someone out there “gets it.” Grassroots politics are hip, at least if you are Deval Patrick, who apparently spent some time being interviewed by popular Mass bloggers today. In a conference call with BlueMassGroup’s stellar three, Patrick spent a half hour chatting about his vision for Massachusetts. And sco of .08 also got a chance to talk to Patrick, and will be writing about it later on. Bob Neer (of BMG) has already posted his take on the interview:

Whether he will triumph in the clannish, some say thuggish, world of Massachusetts politics remains to be seen.

“This is on purpose a different kind of campaign. One of the things I observe is that a lot of good people are giving up on politics. They are checking out. This has made the space that cynics have occupied. I am trying to invite people back in to give them the sense that this is their government,” Patrick said.

…

Patrick touched on the importance of access to capital for small businesses in creating jobs and generating economic growth; elements for a solution to the health care nightmare; and the importance of accountability in large construction projects.

On the economy: “The question of access to capital is extremely important for folks of low or moderate income. Most jobs are created by small and medium sized businesses. The SBIC program is a combination of federal money and private money. That program is expiring on the federal level and I’d like to see an analog created on the state level. Particularly in places like Springield and Holyoke. If we had a Gvernor who was more serious about job creation we’d see some programs like that.”

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On health care: “I don’t meet anybody who thinks the system we have is working well enough. Those 15-20% annual increases are breaking everybody. There are at least three aspects that need to be addressed. Access. Even people who have health insurance feel they have difficulty. Quality. People feel we are paying more and getting less. Finally, single payer.”

Go read the rest!

Am I disappointed I wasn’t contacted? Well, apparently I was sent an email by his Press Manager - a while back. This is what I get for forcing myself to check the email for this website via webmail (which I always forget to do on a regular basis). I already have 6 other POP3 email addresses set up in Outlook and didn’t want to add another (it is totally cluttered, worse than my physical desk). Guess I’ll now be setting up a seventh! Oh, the perils of being a webmaster with multiple websites. Also, I have to get that address off of a couple busy email lists so I can actually sort out the important stuff.

This could work out to my advantage though, maybe I can set up a time to talk to Mr. Patrick after I get to read what everyone else talked about and do some follow-up. I’ll letcha know.