Patrick shakes up State House staff after missteps

Gov. Deval Patrick announced a shake-up of his 10-week-old administration last Thursday, following weeks of bad press and missteps that have plagued the state’s first Democratic governor in 16 years.

“There is a lot of work to be done to deliver on the people’s expectations for change — including a government that is more responsive to their needs,” Patrick, the second black elected governor in U.S. history, said in a statement.

The changes include the resignation of a $72,000-a-year aide Patrick had hired for his wife Diane — a position that sparked weeks of controversy and criticism of the governor — and the hiring of new communications and political advisors.

The former assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration has publicly apologized twice in recent weeks over separate errors of judgment in what some expected to be a honeymoon period marked by the return of a bold, liberal agenda to one of the nation’s most socially progressive states.

The most recent mea culpa followed a Feb. 20 telephone call Patrick made to a senior executive at financial giant Citigroup, which has businesses regulated by the state, to personally vouch for a controversial lending firm where he was once a board member.

The call to Robert Rubin, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, was made on behalf of the owners of Ameriquest Mortgage as they sought financial assistance from the financial services giant.

Patrick’s involvement was seen as a conflict of interest and roundly criticized, in part because Ameriquest has been accused of predatory lending, a practice that has led to a rise in property foreclosures in Massachusetts.

State Republicans have called for an ethics investigation.

That incident followed an outcry over decisions to upgrade Patrick’s state car to a Cadillac that cost taxpayers $1,166 a month, and to spend $27,000 on drapes and other new office fittings while asking other departments to curb spending.

“Oh, we screwed up,” he said on Feb. 21 of the Cadillac and office decorations, saying he would contribute $543 a month to the car’s lease.

Some political analysts have criticized Patrick’s administration for lacking political experience.

(Reuters)