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Berwick Makes Campaign For Governor Official

Donald Berwick, a pediatrician and former Obama administration health care official, formally announced on Monday that he plans to run for governor in 2014, entering a slowly evolving field.

Dr. Donald Berwick at WBUR in January (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Dr. Donald Berwick at WBUR in January (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Berwick served for a year-and-a-half as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Obama, and since January has been meeting with voters and donors as he explored a potential campaign.

So far, Berwick has already raised roughly $223,220 toward a gubernatorial bid, including $100,000 of his own money put toward the campaign, and spent more than $47,827 as he has hired staff and begun to put together a team.

“We lead the nation — with hard work and a continued commitment to making our state better and taking care of the most vulnerable among us, we can ensure that tradition of leadership continues. As a doctor, an educator, an innovator and someone who has dedicated his professional career to making things work better and to helping people — I am ready to lead,” Berwick said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

Berwick said a formal campaign kickoff event and “traditional campaigning” will come later after Democrats “do everything they can to elect my friend Ed Markey to the United State Senate.”

Other Democrats mulling potential campaigns include state Treasurer Steven Grossman and Congressman Michael Capuano. Former Wellesley Selectman and health care executive Joseph Avellone has already announced his campaign for governor, and Evan Falchuk, an attorney who works for Best Doctors, is running as an independent.

Berwick’s evolving campaign resembles in one respect that of Elizabeth Warren in that both arrived on the scene in state politics by capitalizing on profiles they had built while working in Washington, D.C.

This program aired on June 17, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

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