"Coakley publicity stirs political speculation" April 09, 2012|Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff
Attorney General Martha Coakley was so often spotted behind media microphones last week that the average voter might have assumed she was making a big announcement of her own. But no, she was not running for higher office, she told a reporter who asked about her next move.
The most remarkable aspect of the question is that it was asked.
Two years ago, Coakley was political Kryptonite. The Democrat who lost the seat held by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy to a little-known Republican wasn’t expected to have a political future, much less a rising one.
See: Crazy Marty Coakley and Her Next Campaign
But following her reelection win as attorney general, she beat her way back to grudging respect.
Related: Three Cheers For Coakley
I spoke too soon.
A Boston Globe poll last weekend found her to be the most popular politician in Massachusetts. And when her office brought criminal charges last Monday against Timothy P. Cahill, former treasurer, some questioned her political motives, thinking they spied an opening salvo in a new campaign.
Related: Cahill's Karma
Sunday Globe Special: Cahill Still Has Bad Karma
All of which raises the question of whether a Coakley comeback is possible, or whether her appeal is confined to the office she occupies.
Do Massachusetts voters really want more of Coakley, or do they merely approve of her handling of her current role? Could she - or any Massachusetts attorney general - transcend the limitations of the law-and-order office and appeal to the public more broadly and more passionately?
Political observers say it’s quite possible. Her 2010 Senate defeat, while embarrassing, did not write her political obituary.
“There are second acts in politics,’’ said Jeffrey Berry, professor of political science at Tufts University. “When Democratic voters looked back at the race they saw an incompetent candidate, not an incompetent attorney general. Looking at her now, I think they are assuming this is somebody who learned from her campaign and, given how strong an attorney general she is, she’s worth another look.’’
As his favorite example, Berry cites Richard Nixon, whose presidency followed losing campaigns for president and governor of California, not to mention his declaration that reporters would not have him to “kick around anymore’’ because he was getting out of the game. (He came to be seen as an acceptable moderate after conservative Barry Goldwater’s 1964 defeat further divided the Republican Party.)
The Boston Globe poll showing Coakley to be the most popular politician in Massachusetts found her to be even more well-liked than Senator Scott Brown, the obscure Republican who unexpectedly vanquished her in the 2010 special Senate election to fill the seat that had been held by Kennedy.
Brown had consistently topped polls since he took office in 2010.
Coakley’s favorable rating of 62 percent put her ahead of Brown (54 percent), Governor Deval Patrick (57 percent), and Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, whose dismal 29-to-30 percent favorable-unfavorable ratings reflect his vulnerability to Democratic challengers who also aspire to be governor.
Coakley told the State House News Service last week that she is not pursuing another office but is focused on her job as attorney general and intends to run for a third term.
Nonetheless, speculation was fueled last week by her office’s highly publicized indictment of the former state treasurer, which some ascribed to political motives of her own....
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I forget why she lost.
"Brown ad embraces ballpark, unlike stance in ’01" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff, April 12, 2012
In a new radio ad released Thursday, Senator Scott Brown wraps himself around legendary Fenway Park and the celebration of its 100th anniversary, heaping praise on the current Red Sox ownership for “improving what we have instead of starting over somewhere else.’’
What Brown does not mention in the 30-second spot is that it represents 180-degree turn from the public position he took a decade ago.
Back in January 2001, when the Red Sox ownership was looking to relocate the franchise, Brown, then a Republican state representative from Wrentham, not only pushed to remove the team from the storied park, but also out of Boston.
“Exploring the possibility of a Red Sox relocation to Foxborough makes fiscal and economic sense,’’ Brown told Kraft, according to an Associated Press story at the time.
His idea was roundly rejected by the Red Sox and sniffed at by local sports writers. But his suggestion sent a ripple in the national sports news.
That is a sharp contrast to the new radio ad, in which Brown extols the current Red Sox ownership and the old park itself, just a day before the 2012 home opener and a week before the centennial anniversary of the team’s first game there.
“Think of it: the park opened in 1912 - the same year as the sinking of the Titanic,’’ he says. “It’s not only the home of the Red Sox, it also connects us to our past.’’
Brown’s attempt to connect himself to Boston’s long and emotional relationship with the Red Sox and its historic playing field fits neatly into his campaign theme that his Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard Law school professor and Cambridge elitist who is out of touch with mainstream Massachusetts culture.
In his upset victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley in the special 2010 Senate election, Brown got a big boost when Coakley, a Democrat, mistakenly identified Curt Schilling as a New York Yankee and sniffed when a reporter asked if she would shake hands outside Fenway Park.
Yes, these are the important issues that decide campaigns up h're.
Brown’s latest radio ad tugs at the heartstrings of the fans, evoking those cherished images they have of Fenway Park.
“Remember what Fenway looked like the first time you walked into the ballpark?’’ Brown says. “There was that emerald grass, the white chalk lines perfectly laid out, and that giant wall in left field.’’
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"Elizabeth Warren sets Mass. Senate fund-raising pace" April 10, 2012|By Noah Bierman
US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said Monday that she raised $6.9 million in the first three months of the year, continuing her staggering pace and doubling the figure collected by incumbent Scott Brown.
Warren, a Democrat, is proving an especially prolific fund-raiser in her first run for public office, setting the pace nationally among Senate candidates in the final three months of 2011. A national Democratic official said the party expects Warren will again outrank all other Senate candidates, from both parties, in the recently completed fund-raising quarter, which ended March 31....
In any other Senate race in the country, Brown’s haul would also be eye-popping. He outraised every Senate candidate nationally, apart from Warren and two self-funded candidates, in the last three months of 2011.
His campaign said Friday that the Republican raised $3.4 million in the first quarter of this year, giving Brown a total of about $15 million in the bank.
Before Warren entered the race, some Democrats were concerned that the party would not be able to overcome Brown’s financial advantage....
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Can you tell the Globe isn't really that popular with me anymore?
