AP News, January 4th, 2007
Deval Laurdine Patrick was sworn in Thursday as the 71st governor of Massachusetts, the culmination of a longshot political campaign that also saw him become the state's first black chief executive and only the second elected in the nation.
Amid springlike weather that embraced the state's first outdoor inaugural, Patrick placed his hand on a Bible once given to John Quincy Adams by Amistad slaves he helped free and repeated the oath recited to him by Senate President Robert Travaglini.
"Congratulations, Governor," Travaglini said before Patrick signed an official state register.
Among those looking on were thousands of supporters who helped propel the political neophyte to a 21-point victory on Election Day. Seated in chairs at the base of the Statehouse steps were members of the Legislature and four past governors: Michael S. Dukakis, William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci and Jane M. Swift.
Also observing was L. Douglas Wilder, who became the nation's first black elected governor in 1990 when he was similarly inaugurated in Virginia. He now serves as mayor of the state's capital city, Richmond.
With his installation, Patrick ended a 16-year run of Republican rule that began in 1991, when Weld replaced Dukakis in the Corner Office. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, who decided against seeking a second term, did not attend the ceremonies, having left the building Wednesday night after taking a tradition-laden "lone walk" down the Statehouse steps.
Romney, who filed papers Wednesday to form a presidential exploratory committee, stayed at his Belmont home before heading into his new headquarters in the North End to work on his campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination.
