Catching Up with Deval Patrick
THE FORMER GOVERNOR TALKS ABOUT THE BERKSHIRES, THE ECONOMY, & THE FUTURE
By Anastasia Stanmeyer // Photos By David Edgecomb
Deval Patrick sits comfortably in his home office, aka “The Think House.” As is customary in the Patricks home, shoes are left at the entrance.
It’s been a minute since I visited Deval Patrick at his home in Richmond— ten years to be exact. It was for a cover story in Berkshire Magazine during his second term as governor of Massachusetts. That’s not to say that I haven’t run into him and his wife, Diane, since then. I’ve seen them at Jacob’s Pillow gala performances, concerts at Tanglewood, Barrington Stage Company special events, the West Stock- bridge Farmers Market, a news conference at MASS MoCA, and elsewhere.
The very first time I met Deval was at an unveiling of a new fiber-optic line that ran from Springfield to Sandisfield. Broadband had arrived in the Berkshires, and that was a big deal. So was having the governor there. The location was Farmington River Elementary. The excitement was palatable; the Berkshires felt connected, finally, to Beacon Hill.
With those memories close to the sur- face, I drove down a winding driveway and looked forward to my next meeting with Deval. I passed a brightly painted viola along the way, then a second one emerged. They were from a scavenger hunt that Tanglewood held years ago and stood as reminders of the Patricks’ love of music, art, and community. I spotted a few cars parked beside a small building down the way and came upon a sign that read, “The Think House.” Our photographer was standing out front. He informed me that an interview just before ours was running long.
We waited for several minutes and then quietly stepped inside. We listened to the conversation between the former governor and Julieanna Richardson, founder of The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive and depository headquartered in Deval’s home- town of Chicago. (We later learned that this was the third installment of interviews with Deval that began in 2004.) I took in my surroundings as they carried on. The office was lined with books whose subjects spanned U.S. and world politics, biographies, economics, novels, music, and so much more. I spotted the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David Blight. A nearby plaque read, “Always remember who you are and what you represent,” a quote from Reynolds Wintersmith, Deval’s grandfather. Books stacked on Deval’s desk were waiting to be read. Framed diplomas and certificates covered the wall behind his desk; small sculptures and photos and medals were scattered throughout the bookshelves. The Think House had the air of the Governor’s Office. No wonder. The desk, the credenza, and some lamps were pieces of furniture that he had bought when he took office in 2007 and took with him after being governor.
The videotaping for The HistoryMakers was completed, and the umbrella lights were packed away. Deval thanked Julieanna and walked across the room in his stocking feet, reaching out his hand towards a barefoot me. (We followed his lead of leaving our street shoes at the entrance.) He flashed a smile that lit up the room once again. After some pic- ture-taking, he settled comfortably into one of the sofas and leaned back, appear- ing none the weary after the previous interview.
Deval is a Harvard Law School graduate whose legal career included a stint as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights during the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s. Deval was first elected governor in 2006 and re-elected in 2010. He began our conversation by saying that it was the cultural scene that drew him to the Berkshires. He would visit his good friend and law partner who had a place at Jiminy Peak. His college classmate, Yo-Yo Ma, also had a home here. The Patricks bought property in Richmond 20 years ago and had their home built three years later. While governor, he would come to the Berkshires as often as he could with his family—and that is when he really got to know our cultural institutions.
When he took office in 2007, the country was entering a recession, and he was looking at ways to help communities such as the Berkshires. He questioned why there wasn’t greater collaboration between cultural institutions in aligning calendars and making use of the shoulder seasons. He had a convening at Hancock Shaker Village to discuss how these institutions could create a more vibrant arts community and could draw Pittsfield into the conversation. What was the engine that would bring this region together to make it more economically vibrant? He was looking right at it.
The state was ramping up its grant-making, and the Berkshires responded by submitting applications to improve its infrastructure. The results were fruitful—from $24.5 million for a massive expansion at MASS MoCA, to $1.7 million to finish the First Street Common project in Pittsfield. Patrick’s administration put money into the Colonial Theatre, Barrington Stage, and elsewhere.
After leaving office in 2015, Deval, along with Diane, continued to serve on boards of cultural institutions in the Berkshires, as well as offer advice. Deval said he spent a lot of time talking with Norman Rockwell Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt before last year’s exhibit, Imprinted: Illustrating Race. “It was a beautiful exhibit, but it was a worrisome exhibit, because not all those portrayals are flattering, to say the least,” he says. “When you think about Rockwell’s renderings of Black people in the ’30s and how incredibly sensitive and dignified they were, and when you look at some of the other work and portrayals that were happening at the same time, it’s really quite remarkable. It was a beautiful, beautiful exhibit, but she was worried about it … We talked about the importance of having signage, warning people before they went in that they were going to see such images. I believe we should face our history, not be fearful of it.”
I pointed out the Frederick Douglass book on his shelf by Blight.
“When they wanted to launch the Freedom Center in Great Barrington, we had an event here to familiarize people with the work at the historic church. I met then this marvelous group of young Black historians and scholar. David Blight was here as well, and he’s been working with them. They teach at Tufts and UMass and Yale and Columbia, and they live around here. Who knew? It’s been so exciting to get to know them.”
I continued with more questions.
Are you still involved in any organizations or groups here in the Berkshires? I’ve helped out with W.E.B. Du Bois things. Diane was central to the Elizabeth Freeman statue in Sheffield, with Smitty Pignatelli.
Do you know about the Du Bois statue that’s being planned in Great Barrington? I learned about it recently and sent a contribution. I think we may have been asked to be honorary something or other, which we are happy to do.
As co-director of the Center for Public Leadership, a professor of practice at Harvard Kennedy School, and an advisor to Bain Capital, what does your workday look like? I just finished the first course of my own at the Kennedy School, a course called Principles and Politics When Running for Office. I had 100 students in the class, which is more than I bargained for. They were marvelous. It was not a how-to course. It was a course about the importance of centering your “why” when you’re a candidate; how to think about not just the polling and the money and your path and all the stuff that most candidates talk about. They talk about “how” a lot. They often don’t talk about “why” they want to serve.
What did you want as a takeaway? I wanted them to have more than ambition behind their interest in public service. We have so many really talented people who would step up for politics but don’t because it’s often so trivial. There’s always a balance between substance and performance art. You can be in politics today and be a performer alone with no substance at all. Meanwhile, we have civic needs that go unmet. And there’s a short-termism about a lot of our politics. If you can’t get it done in time for the next election season’s news cycle, then it’s not worth doing. Yet the leadership we crave is about the next generation. It was really about trying to get folks to dig deeper into their purpose. Frankly, if their purpose is ambition alone, if it’s just to have the job, then get to that. Then ask yourself, when it gets mean and nasty, is that enough? When we had low points in the campaigns that I’ve been a part of, there was some place to come home to, some set of values, some sense of purpose.
Growing up, did you want to be in the public eye and serve the greater good? I really wanted to be an architect. I still want to be an architect. I will be an architect one day, I’m telling you. I had a drum teacher who was an architect. He had studied percussion. I think mostly he wanted to date my mother. [laughs] He was about my mom’s age, and he had gone to college, and he was a timpanist from time to time with the Boston Symphony. He had studied jazz drumming, but he was an architect. I had lessons in his apartment, and he had a draft table. He showed me how to use these scale rulers. I think the origins of my interest in this come from sharing a room and a set of bunk beds with my mother and my sister when I was growing up and just never feeling like we had enough space. The Sunday paper would come, and they’d have these ads for developments with new houses, and they’d have the floor plan. For hours, I’d lie on the floor and study these floor plans and imagine what it was like if you came in the door this way. Would you want to turn left to the kitchen? Or would you rather turn left to this room? How would that feel? It’s so interesting. Different spaces actually do have an impact on how you feel about your use of that space. So I’ve been interested in that for a long time. My wife gave me a subscription to Architectural Digest the year after we were married. I couldn’t wait for it to come. I’d tear out pages of this window that really seemed interesting, or this roofline that really stood out, and I stuffed them in a file folder for years. When we bought this land, I pulled that file folder out. So this home has been my project.
What happened with studying architecture when you got older? I got interested in other things.
Are you taking a break from public service? I’ve been involved with any number of candidates and coached them and stumped for them.
Who, recently? Charles Booker, who ran for Senate in Kentucky. He was a guest in my course. There’s a woman named Deidre De Jear who ran for governor in Iowa. Chris Jones, who ran for governor in Arkansas.
Wes Moore is a mentee of mine. He ran successfully for governor in Maryland. I talk to a lot of Congressional candidates. Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, members of Congress, are both friends of mine. I’m supportive of the two of them, and they are running for Senate in California. I’m trying to be helpful without hurting anyone’s feelings.
Are you planning to run again for president? I don’t rule it out. I don’t have a plan. If Joe Biden had not decided to run again, I’d take a closer look at the race again. I can’t see a good reason for challenging him because I think his agenda is the right agenda. I really do.
Tell me about your work with Bain Capital. The impact fund that I started there is still going. The team is up to 25 now. We have something called the Impact Council, which is a small number of folks who are involved in features of the impact investing world who advise us on what’s cutting edge and just how to stay true to the mission. The mission is to invest in companies that are delivering both financial return and measurable social or environmental impact. The three areas of focus are health and wellness, sustainability and education, and workforce development.
Are there any companies or investments in particular that you’re especially proud of? There are a couple of them. We invested in a company called Rodeo Dental & Orthodontics in Texas. Pediatric dental care is pretty darn important as a matter of healthcare. The impact over time on learning, on behavioral issues, is well-documented. And poor kids have a hard time getting that care. Many dental practices are big; they have lots and lots of offices. We looked at a number of those operating in places close to poor kids, then buy and kind of steer the practice in that direction. We found a bunch of young dentists in Texas. Most of them had gone to dental school together. And a couple of them had come from families that had fancy practices, Beverly Hills and so on, and who realize during internships that they were being assigned to places where poor kids were getting their care, and it was terrible. They said, “I wonder if there’s a way to put together a practice that serves poor kids at scale and also makes money.” Because most kids are on a version of Medicare, they came up with a model that was very much about efficiency and respect. So, you’re poor, your kid needs a checkup. They say your kid needs fillings and probably orthodontistry. They will do it all that day, at the same time. While your kid is in there, the siblings are being entertained out front, and there’s the social worker helping to understand whether you’re taking advantage of all of the benefits for which you’re eligible. From the family’s point of view, it’s very efficient in terms of time management, and it’s explosively successful. It’s expanded to every corner of Texas and one other state. We’ve been set back a little bit by the moment, just because it’s expensive, inflation and the rest. We bought a big part of the company in order to enable this expansion, so we put the capital into it. We helped them get a CFO to help professionalize their team.
What else? There’s a company called Rural Sourcing. It’s a workforce development place. When Google outsources stuff, they often look overseas.
There’s been a movement to onshore outsourcing. Find services within the States rather than some other place to help fill your capacity. You can do that at a comparable price point if you are sourcing in places where the cost of living is lower than Google. Well, it turns out that a lot of folks from Google would like to live back home in Mobile, Alabama, where they can afford to buy a home. They want to be able to do that quality work. So, the model was for folks like that to come home to Mobile, or to some place in Indiana, or Oklahoma, to create enough of a concentration of people there. We go up to about 100 programmers. They then train also at the local community college. I mentioned Mobile because this is one place we visited when we were doing due diligence. There was someone from Google who trained a retired trooper who had moved home to be close to his kids, who attended the community college. He then became a programmer, and it was catalyzing all this economic development in downtown Mobile, which was dead or dying. And the mayor was all excited and so on. We’ve done that now in a dozen cities—small, medium-sized cities. It’s expanded like crazy. Our strategy has got a lot of pieces. There’s a combination of existing workforce, housing price, and transportation. The target communities are places like Pittsfield, and that’s what I like about it, because it’s part of expanding economic opportunity beyond the usual locations.
What other endeavors would you like to be involved in? The boards and the politics keep me pretty busy. I am going to relaunch my PAC, because I want to encourage investment in helping to build a permanent grassroots infrastructure. It’s basically community-building; it’s not just politics. Everybody is isolated and hungry for community. That is, to me, the best way to build a civic culture. There are some great organizers in communities who help politically, but they get money to help with politics at the last minute. They have to flex up to help, and then they have to lay off after that. Well, suppose we were doing this all the time?
What will this PAC do? The point is to raise money to find and identify local existing grassroots groups in a bunch of different places—how we sort out those places remains to be seen—and to try to do grants that enable them to do sustained organizing. So they can hire up the organizers year-round. When they’re not talking about politics, they’re talking about who needs a turkey at Thanksgiving. That’s stuff that communities do and that organizers are really good at. They will be the best sources for what the issues really ought to be when elections come around, so you’re not having to rely as much on pollsters and pundits, but actually find out from the community what folks want and need.
What’s on your mind lately? I worry about the state of the democracy. We have two challenges, only one of which we’re really paying attention to. The one we’re paying attention to is how to make it function and get the rules right. There’s another challenge we face, which is how to make it meaningful. We get a third of folks who don’t vote even in a presidential election, not just because it’s hard, but because they don’t think their vote matters. They don’t feel like the democracy delivers for them or touches them or sees or hears them. And I do worry about that, because I don’t think they’re unreasonable. I think there’s a different way to think about politics, which is how we work out the choices in our democracy so that it involves more people and engages more people. I hate the red state/blue state thing. I just hate it. In fact, I hate the battleground states, because if you’re not in one, you feel like it’s not about you.
When I was running at the grassroots, I came to under- stand how people in the Berkshires felt like it’s just about the neighborhood around Beacon Hill. Well, it turns out, that’s what they felt in Central Massachusetts and what they felt in the Merrimack Valley, and what they felt on the Cape—that Beacon Hill was just about the neighborhood around Beacon Hill. And they felt that way in Roxbury. What struck me was that all these people all over the Commonwealth were feeling the same way. Today, what is offered as the so-called grievances of white working people—the economic uncertainty, the social isolation, the despair, as measured by addiction rates and suicide rates—it’s all the same stuff Black and brown people in cities have been feeling for generations. Our leaders or would-be leaders don’t call that out as shared pain. Our solutions may themselves be bridges. This is an amazing time. What is in shorter supply is real strategy about how to build a future where folks who haven’t had a chance to participate, get a chance to participate. How to revive economic mobility, which is a problem all over the country. All the tools are there. This could be a moment of real economic revival in the Berkshires, for example—more broad-based, well past the “What’s the next GE?” kind of question.
What is the mechanism to make this happen? The governor’s team has some opportunity to seize here, and I think they will. They have to work closely with our federal delegation. I think they will. I’d love to see more of that leadership coming from the Biden administration. I think they get it, but for a lot of the folks on that team, their idea of doing something sort of ends in getting that monumental bill signed. But the question now is how to get it out. It’s going to be cities and regional teams. It’s going to be public and private and social sectors, as well. But, my goodness, what an opportunity we have right now.