It was a long time ago, but for former Massachusetts governor and ex-presidential hopeful Michael Stanley Dukakis, it may as well have been yesterday.

Speaking at the first graduation of the Leadership SouthCoast program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center, Dukakis took some time to sit down with The Herald News and talk about what the Southcoast was like when he was governor, what has changed and what hasn’t changed since then, what shape the state is in today under Gov. Mitt Romney and what it may be like tomorrow under another governor.

"Back in the '70s, this area - basically the south and west areas of the state - were in a big mess. Unemployment was at 25 percent and the old industrial base was dying, even back then," Dukakis said. "There was really no hope."

Dukakis said that when he became governor, there was very little focus on the towns and cities that needed the most help, places like Fall River, New Bedford, Springfield, Lowell and Lawrence.

"Once I became governor I wanted to focus on not just the cities in need of help but the regions around them," Dukakis said. The region now known as the Southcoast was one of those regions.

First elected governor in 1974, Dukakis is regarded as a major factor in the economic turnaround of the state in the mid-'70s, although it wasn't enough to get him re-elected in 1978, when he lost to Edward King.

"At our first regional development meeting, we got 400 people together from the area and asked them what we could do to improve that particular area," Dukakis said. "Even back then, the biggest budgetary concern was spending billions of dollars on a master highway plan for Route 128 while the rest of the state got screwed."

Even throughout the early and late '80s, Dukakis said, thoughts had begun to turn to the commuter rail and what it would do if it ever reached southeastern Massachusetts.

Little did he know that more than 20 years later, the same questions would still be asked.

"Getting a (commuter) rail to this area is critical. There is nothing more important today, not just in the cities, but everywhere," Dukakis said. "Once these people get it (the rail), they will wonder how they got along without it for so long."

Dukakis used Brockton as an example, noting that before the city for the rail, a seven-room ranch sold for $60,000 and now, connecting Brockton to the rail "has not only transformed that community, but it opened up the chance for these people who were paying more than they could afford for their homes in Boston to have other options in Brockton and other areas to purchase homes at better prices."

Dukakis followed up his 1986 victory with a Democratic nomination for president in 1988. He lost to then-Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush. Now, rumors are circulating that the current Massachusetts governor also has his eyes set on a future presidential run.

"I was really the last elected governor that actually wanted to be governor," Dukakis said.

When asked why he felt Romney has put off the commuter rail project to this area since he took office, Dukakis said it's hard to convince a governor of anything if they don't ever even visit the areas in question.

Romney's last visit to Fall River was Nov. 5.

"This area needs a new governor that will make the commuter rail project their number one priority," he said.

As for what to expect in the present or future governors of the commonwealth, Dukakis said that voters should not only expect things from their governor and other elected officials, but should make those things happen.

"People need to talk to the next gubernatorial candidate and grab them and say 'OK, here's the deal, this is what we want, tell us how you will get it," Dukakis said. "Tell them you don't want to hear about a 20-year plan, that you want it done right away."

Since leaving office in 1991, Dukakis has been a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii, Florida Atlantic University and Northeastern University in Boston, and still maintains his residency in the sate where he was born and raised, and maintains a somewhat low profile.

Of southeastern Massachusetts, he said, "This area has everything, without the traffic of Cape Cod. You have a fine university, great community college and are a special part of the state's history and this area deserves a governor's special attention."

Commenting on the 26 graduates of the Leadership SouthCoast program, any one of whom could be governor some day, Dukakis said the future of state and the region lies not only in the governor's hands, but also in the hand's of tomorrow's leaders.

"I see the leadership group graduating today and realize that this group will help to develop and grow a cadre of leaders that will work on helping to revitalize this area for many years to come," Dukakis said.