Around New England

‘Cruelty of Our Elections Process’ Cited By Deval Patrick for Not Running in 2020

December 6, 2018

Cruelty is keeping former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick from running for president in 2020, he said Thursday.

“After a lot of conversation, reflection and prayer, I’ve decided that a 2020 campaign for president is not for me,” Patrick said in a written statement posted on Facebook on Thursday morning. “I’ve been overwhelmed by advice and encouragement from people from all over the country, known and unknown. Humbled, in fact. But knowing that the cruelty of our elections process would ultimately splash back on people whom Diane and I love, but who hadn’t signed up for the journey, was more than I could ask.”

Patrick, who served as governor from 2007 through 2015, had been testing the waters for a presidential run by travelling, making speeches, and cooperating with profiles.

His statement doesn’t specify the “people” Patrick is worried about. A Boston Globe story on Thursday, however, suggests Patrick could be worried about attacks from President Donald Trump:  “some who know Patrick expressed concern that the indictment of his brother-in-law earlier this year on charges of kidnapping, rape, and assault could have exposed the family to brutal attacks from President Trump.”

In 2014, when he was governor, Patrick fired the chairman of the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board member who had pressed for Patrick’s brother-in-law to be listed as a sex offender in Massachusetts because of his 1993 guilty plea in California on a charge of spousal rape. The brother-in-law ultimately wasn’t required to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts, but is now defending against more recent sex-crime charges.

Patrick doesn’t mention in his statement another potential problem with his candidacy in a Democratic primary:  his association with Bain Capital, the Boston investment firm former governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney founded. Patrick is a managing director of the firm. Democrats in 2012 used Bain Capital as a cudgel against Romney.

Patrick was not getting much traction in early polls.