BY JAKE AUCHINCLOSS

Deval Patrick surged from obscurity to the governor’s office on the back of a grass-roots campaign that promised reform for Massachusetts. The charismatic Harvard graduate was directing his pledge towards voters, of course, but after a frustrating first year, during which his ambitious agenda has largely stagnated in the legislature, it seems the governor should have aimed the message at his colleagues in the Beacon Hill statehouse as well. This tension between the executive and the legislature arises in part due to developments intrinsic to Bay State politics. The institutional primacy of the Massachusetts legislature, coupled with the heterogeneity of views within its dominant party, means that Patrick must cultivate especially close ties with legislators and their leaders in order to achieve his political objectives.

“Big Tent” Bay State Politics
Every representative and senator on Beacon Hill knows that the legislative branch of the Commonwealth is more powerful than the executive. While the Massachusetts legislature is among the nation’s strongest, says David King, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University, the office of the governor is one of the five weakest in the Union. A Massachusetts governor runs on a ticket without his cabinet officers, creating multiple centers of power within the administration. The Bay State’s leader must also contend for executive power with the secretary of the Commonwealth, a position with the important role of chief public information officer. Moreover, a series of Republican executives has left the governorship weakened after much of its power was usurped by the antagonistic Democratic legislatures.

This is sobering news for any new governor, and becomes grimmer still when one considers the ideological diversity among Democrats in the state. “The Democratic Party has a big tent. There are Democrats from all walks of life,” noted Charlotte Golar-Richie, a senior advisor to the governor on state affairs, in an interview with the HPR. Centrist and center-right legislative candidates in Massachusetts often campaign as Democrats to boost their chances for election in this blue state, which results in a legislature that is less liberal that its party composition might suggest. King estimates that one-third of the 141 Democrats in the 160-member House of Representatives would be Republicans in a more conservative state, like New Hampshire.

But the makeup of the statehouse is only part of the political picture. Marty Linsky, adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a former state representative, described the legislature to the HPR as “all about relationships, not about ideologies.” Considering that Patrick’s stances on issues such as same-sex marriage have elicited firm ideological opposition from less liberal legislators, this point may be overstated. It highlights a crucial dynamic all the same. For every important bill, Linsky recounts, only about one-third of the legislators are bound by re-election concerns to vote according to their constituents’ beliefs, while the rest are persuadable. Depending upon the content of the bill, the composition of the flexible two-thirds varies. What is constant is the critical role of personal relationships in convincing them.

What Friends Are For
The lack of this amity between Gov. Patrick and the legislature served as an early impediment to legislative momentum. In a recent interview with the HPR, House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, a state representative from Middlesex, remarked, “The vast majority of legislators don’t have a relationship with the governor. There’s no built-up trust.” But to the extent that sturdy political bonds evolve from shared experience on the Hill, Patrick, who has never held elected office before, is not responsible for the initially low comfort level between him and many legislators. He is accountable, though, for the fact that it has remained low over the past year. Democratic legislators crave a rapport with the governor. It pays dividends in greater name recognition, a more responsive gubernatorial staff, and discretionary bureaucratic appointments for their constituents.

Moreover, the governor has not effectively nurtured certain blocs within the legislature that could be especially useful to him. These include the black caucus and fellow liberals, but most importantly the representatives and senators who supported him in the Democratic primary over former Attorney General Tom Reilly, the establishment candidate who had the backing of much of the legislature. “[Patrick] has distanced himself from the core of legislators who stuck their necks out early on,” explained Linsky.

This early neglect of the administration’s potential advocates in the legislature has resulted in a significant forfeiture of power to House Speaker Salvatore Dimasi. Speaker Dimasi is a Democrat, but no liberal, and did not support Gov. Patrick in the primary election. Their relationship remained tense in the months after the election as the Patrick administration inundated the leadership with new bill proposals while failing to actually file many of them at the beginning of the session. In reaction, Speaker Dimasi has exercised his office’s traditional power over matters such as committee assignments, staff sizes, and office space to dissuade liberal representatives from supporting Patrick’s agenda. “There’s no incentive to stray from the legislative leadership,” Rep. Jones says. “The Democratic members are more intimidated of and loyal to the speaker than to Gov. Patrick.” If the governor is to convince the legislature to support his proposals in the next session, he must correct this situation by improving relationships with the rank-and-file and by collaborating extensively with the powerful leadership.

He is starting to do both. After beginning his tenure with a few mini-scandals, Gov. Patrick re-enlisted the widely respected Doug Rubin, formerly his top campaign adviser, to be the chief of a revamped staff that has interacted with the legislature more adeptly. The weekly meetings the governor has held throughout his tenure with the speaker and Senate President Therese Murray bore fruit in November, resulting in the appropriation of $15 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, divestment from Darfur, and the establishment of buffer zones between picketers and centers for reproductive health. The three leaders are currently working on, among other projects, a landmark bill securing $1 billion in biotechnology funding. Thus far, the governor’s strategic shift appears promising. If he continues to build the goodwill with the legislature that was lacking in his first year, Gov. Patrick may spend his second year signing his ambitions into law. ]]>