I have heard bad things about Deval Patrick

[BayCityProgressive]

okay, so a friend sent this to me in an email but I don't know if it's legit. any New England people should be able to clarify this for me. Is this stuff really true about Patrick and if so does it raise questions?? I am an openly gay democrat so his election and pro-gay agenda excited me but this gives me pause...

Patrick is a multi-millionaire with some political ties to the capitalist establishment. In 1994 Clinton appointed him assistant attorney general for civil rights.

He was Texaco’s vice president and general counsel from 1999 to 2001. According to www.killercoke.org, during this time Patrick was the principal architect of the Texaco/Chevron merger that resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs. He also opposed the right of 30,000 poor Ecuadorians to sue Texaco for damage to their health and environment.

He served as executive vice president and general counsel for the Coca Cola Company. He stated that Coke’s labor relations in Colombia were exemplary and that most workers were represented by unions in Coke’s Colombian plants—in reality, 90 percent are not represented by unions. He also helped Coke avoid paying billions in taxes. (www.killercoke.org)

Patrick was on the board of the firm that runs Ameriquest, a mortgage company accused of predatory lending practices in poor and oppressed communities. Millions of Massachusetts residents were scammed. (Boston Globe, May 31)

Patrick grew up poor on the South Side of Chicago and was raised by a single parent, his mother. He got a scholarship to a private academy and received his law degree from Harvard University

[Ken Burch]

1. It would help if you'd print his first and last names in the correct order:

It's Deval Patrick, not Patrick Deval.
(Not meaning to be picky but somebody would be bound to nail you on that.)

[BayCityProgressive]

2. no problem

sorry. I dont know a thing about him except that he supports gay marriage. If any of this stuff is true though, it would make me take pause..

[Bluebear]

3. 'Patrick grew up poor on the South Side of Chicago and was raised by a single parent'

If that was true it would give you pause? ("If any of this is true")

[Syrinx]

4. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me

Though, it would disappoint. It seems that to get anywhere in politics in this country you have to sell your soul to the dev... um, corporations.

TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD. AND BAN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CORPORATIONS.

I'm not yelling. I'm emphasizing. ;)

[MonkeyFunk]

5. sounds like a guy

who made something of himself.

"Ties to the capitalist establishment"? LOL

[NewHampshireDem]

6. From Wikipedia ...

Corporate career
In 1997, Patrick returned to Boston to join the firm Day, Berry & Howard, and was appointed by the federal district court to serve as Chairman of the Task Force to oversee implementation of the terms of a race discrimination settlement at Texaco. After serving for nearly two years, he was appointed vice president and general counsel for the company in New York City. From 2000 to 2004, Patrick worked as executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. He resigned in 2004, ending nearly 6 years of weekly commuting between Massachusetts and jobs out of state.

Some gay rights activists have criticized him for his tenure on the United Airlines board. During this time, the company fought a San Francisco ordinance requiring companies to offer domestic partners benefits. Patrick encouraged UAL to offer domestic partner benefits to all employees, becoming the first airline to do so. Patrick contends that for a global company to comply with local employment ordinances in San Francisco would have set an unhelpful precedent.

In 2004, he was appointed to the board of directors of the firm that controls Ameriquest, the mortgage company infamous for predatory lending scandals, because of his 20 years of fighting such problems. Ameriquest subsequently agreed to a $325 million dollar settlement regarding their predatory lending practices in 49 states. Patrick stepped down from the board on July 2, 2006.

It seems from this that Patrick was brought in when bad companies had to make nice ...

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. I heard an interview with him right after the election...

where he was trying to bring in companies to Massachusetts who would not only bring in more jobs, but explore alternative fuels and do research on them.

Whatever his ties to Texaco, it sounds like he is now thinking long term, instead of just gas gas gas. It sounded like a really good idea.