Gov. Deval Patrick said will not resign from his job even if President Obama asks him to become the next U.S. attorney general. 

“I like what I do, and I have more that I want to accomplish in the next two years,” Patrick said, according to a Boston Globe article. “And then I promised [my wife] Diane that I’d go back into the private sector, and I’m going to keep that promise.”

This means that Patrick will remain governor until his term expries, in January 2015. 

Rumors have been swirling about Patrick's possible departure after Obama won re-election and a few nights later Patrick was among the few to attend what was called a "social dinner" at the White House. Patrick said there was no talk at the dinner about him joining the administration, the Globe reported.

Patrick was an assistant attorney general in the Clinton Adminstration, in charge of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division.