Governor Deval Patrick promised to bring new faces and fresh perspectives to his administration, and he certainly has done that. Not only has he appointed Beacon Hill outsiders to cabinet posts and other high offices, he’s hired State House virgins at all levels, from department chiefs of staff to policy analysts — even as liaisons to the legislature.
These hirings have included quite a few members of the Patrick campaign, as well as some significant Patrick fundraisers, leading some critics to speculate that — as has been the case with so many other administrations — patronage may be a fact of life under Patrick.
But other observers merely wonder whether Patrick needs more experienced insiders to help guide him. The lack of insiders, some say, explains the small but aggravating missteps that have dogged the governor’s first weeks in office — from the Cadillac controversy to perceived miscues in the budget-proposal rollout.
"I think people in the building are losing confidence by the minute in their ability to lead," one legislator's policy director says of the Patrick team.
That’s certainly not a unanimous view. But of the hundreds of legislative staffers, current and former, who flooded the new administration with résumés, only a few have been hired. And that appears to have been a deliberate decision. One highly recommended legislative aide was told directly that he would not be considered for a deputy-chief-of-staff position, because he was working with the legislature, sources say.
A deputy-chief-of-staff job did, however, go to 25-year-old Brendan Ryan — who served as a chief aid and deputy finance director on Patrick’s campaign. Several other members of the campaign-finance team have landed jobs in the administration: Janet Lin is chief of staff at the Department of Business and Development; Jane Corr is chief of staff at the Department of Energy and Environment; and Lonsdale Koester is a policy analyst at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Other campaign staffers hired by the administration include Mark Lilienthal, constituent-service director; and Christine Alaimo, public-liaison assistant director.
The list of Patrick hires also includes some who, though they have not worked in the State House, bring something to the table. Policy director Richard Chacon is a veteran journalist who worked for Mayor David Dinkins in New York City. Vicki Zwerdling, assistant to Patrick’s chief of staff, was an aide to Congressman Jim McGovern. Scheduling director Christy Mach was deputy finance director for the Democratic Governors Association. Kahlil Byrd (appointments director), Ron Bell (public-liaison director), and Elizabeth Wall (director of the Office of Travel and Tourism) bring a wealth of professional, community, and policy experience with them.
Then there are those who, though not on the campaign payroll, helped raise money for the effort. Patrick stirred controversy by hiring Amy Gorin as a full-time aide to his wife; Gorin raised more than $70,000 for the Patrick campaign, according to a page on the campaign's Web site that tracked fundraising efforts. Juliette Kayyem of the Kennedy School of Government raised $11,000, also according to that site, and was named undersecretary of homeland security.
It's unsurprising that Patrick would want to hire people he’s comfortable with, or who served him well in the past. And Patrick did pledge to appoint people from outside the usual Beacon Hill circle.
