The cover story in The Valley Advocate this week is about Deval Patrick and the just-announced endorsement of his candidacy for governor by Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts. Here is how it starts out:

Fred Clarkson sees the political tide turning in Massachusetts, and he likes the direction it’s flowing. “Things are changing,” says Clarkson, a Northampton-based author well regarded for his political reporting, most notably tracking the influence of the Christian Right. “All the trends are trending progressive and Democratic.”

There was, for instance, Mitt Romney’s smashing failure to extend the coattails of his 2002 gubernatorial victory to fellow Republicans in last year’s legislative races. Clarkson also points to the resignation of heavy-handed House Speaker Tom Finneran (replaced in his district by a Haitian woman, no less) and a general “shaking out of old guard in the Democratic Party.” The electorate, he says, is ready to replace the old models of patronage and insider politics.

“They’re in the mood for reform,” Clarkson says. “They want clean government. They want honest government. They want functioning government.”

This is great news to Clarkson and his colleagues at Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, which formed after the 2002 gubernatorial election to help like-minded candidates. Last week, the group is endorsed the man it believes can lead Massachusetts to a brighter, more progressive, more inclusive future: Deval Patrick (see “Our Obama,” May 26, 2005).

“This is a man who clearly has progressive values and who can connect them with a large and comprehensive vision,” says Clarkson, who sits on PDM’s state coordinating committee. “That’s something you rarely see in a candidate.”

Much more.