Voices worth listening to

There ought to be a place in a Patrick administration for Grace Ross and Christy Mihos. Their questions made the Democratic nominee a better candidate. Some of their solutions would make him an even better governor.

Ross and Mihos, respectively the Green-Rainbow and independent candidates for governor, provided more than entertainment in the four televised debates this fall. If their focus was sometimes narrow or their tone sometimes harsh, their challenges to Deval L. Patrick and to Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey were often laser sharp. They forced Patrick to clarify his thinking on everything from housing subsidies to higher education.

They should not stop now.

The vote yesterday was an unambiguous call for change in the State House. But of all Healey's arguments against ending 16 years of Republican rule in the governor's office, the one that most resonated with voters of all ideologies was her evocation of the dangers of one-party rule. It is no healthier on Beacon Hill than it is on Capitol Hill, no less destructive when Democrats hold absolute power than when Republicans do.

The problem in Massachusetts is that there is no Republican Party. It is a fiction that Republican governors here have labored under the insurmountable veto threat of a progressive, free-spending Legislature since William F. Weld was elected to the corner office in 1990. Former Senate president Bill Bulger and former House speaker Tom Finneran were more in tune with the fiscally conservative Weld and his successor, Paul Cellucci, than they ever were with Michael Dukakis, the last liberal Democrat to hold high office in the Commonwealth. Both Weld and Cellucci got things done despite the opposition of Democratic progressives in the Legislature who were, and still are, a minority in their party.

Governor Mitt Romney's failure to accomplish much in the past four years speaks more to his disengagement from the affairs of this state than to his relationship with the Democratic Legislature. It was Romney who broke his vow to revive the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Two years ago, his candidate-recruitment efforts ended with the GOP losing seats in the Legislature. This year, Romney and Healey, herself a past chairman of the state GOP, did not even try to mount credible challenges to Democrat incumbents. That is shameful.

The role of a loyal opposition cannot fall to a political entity as moribund as the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Even the Green-Rainbow Party fielded more candidates for statewide constitutional offices this year than the Republican Party did. Why not assign that role to Mihos and Ross, who already proved that they cannot be intimidated?

Mihos, the wealthy owner of a convenience store chain, bolted the GOP to protest the stonewalling about the cost overruns and shoddy workmanship of the Big Dig. He made government transparency the cornerstone of his quixotic campaign. Yes, he often sounded like an insufferable egotist. But why wouldn't we want him at the table in January to press Patrick to nail down the financing for new programs and the mechanism for delivering property tax relief?

Ross, a community organizer and antipoverty activist, spoke for ordinary working people and the poor in this campaign, insisting that the major-party candidates address the concerns of residents living paycheck to inadequate paycheck. Why wouldn't we want her at the table to remind Patrick that she and her neighbors still live where he came from?

The worst of Mihos and Ross -- his bluster, her sanctimony -- could bring out the best in Patrick. The best of Mihos and Ross -- his commitment to accountability, her commitment to economic justice -- would challenge the Patrick administration to marry pragmatism to idealism. That, after all, is what distinguishes campaigning from governing. As Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick might say, let's get started.

Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com.