Don Berwick spent this past weekend jaunting around Cape Cod to promote his bid to succeed Deval Patrick as Governor of Massachusetts in 2014. His tour, dubbed “Innovate the Cape” began in West Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard and ended in Orleans, a small Cape town located on its elbow section where land spanning eastward dramatically juts north.
The foundation of Berwick’s early campaign stems from his prior work as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, as he took to Southeastern Massachusetts to preach his plans on healthcare, the environment, and sustainable energy.
More specifically, as noted by the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, “He wants to abolish hunger, expand alternative energy and affordable housing and has a utopian vision for a patient-centered health care system.” Also, he interestingly shared his thoughts on casino gambling on the island, voicing his strict opposition to it.
Recently, leaders of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) have expressed their intent on building a gaming facility on the island, though they’ve been sued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for doing such. An agreement between the Bay State and the tribe forbids them from moving forward with a gambling complex without the consent of the state.
Berwick is a part-time resident of Menemsha.
Speaking at the Howes House in West Tisbury, Berwick threw his support behind alternative energy initiatives like Cape Wind and solar energy, a more substantial investment in the state’s community colleges, and responded to a query as to the possibility of the popular island destination playing home to a higher-educational institution of its own.
“Wouldn’t it be neat to have this Island be a prototype for advanced, innovative higher education opportunities . . . this could be an example for rural areas everywhere,” he said, as per the Gazette.
BostInno reached out directly to the Berwick campaign to see what he discussed at his other engagements on the Cape in the towns of Dennis, Centerville, and Orleans.
Said Berwick’s press secretary in an email to BosInno, “The Innovate the Cape Tour gave him the opportunity speak to voters about his plans to bring new ideas to state government and to partner with small business and entrepreneurs to further innovation throughout the Commonwealth.”
On healthcare – Berwick’s area of expertise – he intends on conducting a top to bottom review of Massachusetts’s health care cost-containment law to ensure it provides better healthcare at a cheaper rate to the public.
[Image via Mark Lovewell for the Vineyard Gazette]
