Deval Patrick Quotes

In a healthy democracy, the voters choose representatives. In the system we have, the representatives choose the voters. That's upside down. This proposal puts us right side up again.

The notion that there would be two individuals with exactly the same seniority and exactly the same qualifications who would agree that they are equally qualified seems too unlikely to repeat itself in the real world.

Discontent with Republican is not going to be enough for us to win. We have got to offer more than to replace bad leadership with ordinary leadership. We have to offer creative leadership and vision.

I frequently feel when I listen to him and to many other elected officials that they are speaking to an audience not in the room.

We are not finished, we don't believe, with these indictments. We're looking deeper into this particular Klan activity in South Carolina and we intend to get to the bottom of it.

Gun violence is on the rise in many of our cities today, and illegal gun trafficking from neighboring states is a big part of the problem. We need a coordinated effort to ensure partnership and cooperation with prosecution, community programs and crime prevention. We need leadership from the federal, state and local levels, as well as help from our neighboring states.

We ought to ask ourselves, if it's good for a kid, then why is it only available to kids whose families have money?

I certainly understand the instinct to favor someone with whom you make a personal connection. But I also understand, and everyone else does, the import of also doing the fundamentals in terms of a background check.

We had an unexpectedly large tax liability. We paid what we could and then we worked out an installment plan with the IRS. We missed one payment and we got a lien as a result.

Philosophically, it's the only way I can think of to let all those people who've checked out [of politics] to check back in. I look at Massachusetts, and it seems to be at a crossroads. There should be an urgency about that.

If the question is, is there some conflict of interest between where or what my sources are and where my sources are and the job of governing, you'll know that from my financial disclosure forms, and that's entirely appropriate.

Massachusetts invested in me 36 years ago. I lived in Chicago in a two bedroom tenement. I came to Massachusetts when I was 14. I had a scholarship to Milton Academy which to me was the other side of the world.

Senator Kennedy and I have talked about this. I think that he has a point when he talks about the importance of having a regulatory framework to review offshore projects in federal waters. Where we differ is that he thinks we should have that regulatory framework in place before any projects proceed. I think that we have, in fact, built that regulatory framework over the course of review of this project.

We'll be competitive with organized labor, we're also competitive with regular, unorganized labor, working people who see their stakes and their future in the plans we're putting forward to move Massachusetts forward.

I file jointly with my wife, so making our tax returns public means making a non-candidate's tax returns public. I'm not going to do that.