It remains unclear if President Obama will get U.S. Senate consideration (let alone approval) for his upcoming Supreme Court nomination, but one name being floated is that of Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor and Department of Justice attorney who last year joined private equity firm Bain Capital to lead a new “social impact” investment platform.
It’s a pretty intriguing proposition, given Obama’s 2012 electoral tangle with Bain Capital founder Mitt Romney.
Patrick, however, is telling folks that he isn’t heading to Washington, D.C.
Instead, Patrick has told sources that he remains committed to his work at Bain, even though the Boston-based firm has not yet announced any additional hires for the social impact platform, nor has it begun marketing a social impact fund. One source says that the startup process was always expected to be lengthy, given that there is not really any established template for what Patrick is trying to launch, and that some news should be forthcoming within the next couple of months.
All of this sounds like exactly what Patrick needs to be saying right now, particularly given the relatively unlikelihood that he’d be nominated. As for whether he’d really turn down such a weighty presidential request, however, is another thing entirely…