"Martha Coakley gets political redemption" by Joan Vennochi | Globe Columnist November 05, 2014
The baggage of various Patrick administration management scandals also weighed her down. Patrick didn’t help her cause with a tone-deaf move to transfer 500 nonunion managers to the state public employee union.
It meant raises and job protection for those workers, and two weeks
before Election Day, it bolstered Baker’s argument against one-party
rule.
See: Patrick Protects Political Appointees
See: Patrick Protects Political Appointees
The so-called attorney general’s
curse also hung over Coakley. She is now the fourth Massachusetts AG
since 1990 to fail to make the leap to chief executive.
********
She was outspent, 10 to 1, she said. Meanwhile, the local business community helped Baker raise money. Democrats like Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk abandoned her and endorsed Baker. Former AG Tom Reilly publicly griped about Coakley, [and] despite all that, “we almost won,” said Coakley, when she finally faced the media Wednesday morning. That she came so close to ruining Baker’s victory party is a testament to her own resilience. But it also points to an underlying weakness of her campaign.
The people whose hands she shook got a glimpse of the real Coakley. But a campaign strategy aimed at protecting her from unwanted scrutiny also stopped a wider audience from seeing beyond the mythology of 2010 to the improved candidate of 2014. That was critical, since she lacked the funding to wage an effective advertising campaign.
The personality that started to break through in debates was evident on Wednesday....
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"Charlie Baker focuses on team, transition" by Michael Levenson and Stephanie Ebbert | Globe Staff November 06, 2014
After a race in which gender issues played a starring role, Coakley spoke of the opportunities she has been able to seize as a woman of her generation, having joined the first class of women to graduate from Williams College. “I had a chance to go to law school. My mom didn’t have a chance to go to college,” she said, choking up.
And despite her loss, she encouraged women who aspire to politics to seize opportunities as well and follow the example of fellow elected officials US Representative Katherine Clark, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the newly elected attorney general, Maura Healey.
“It’s important that you lean in,” Coakley told the crowd. “For every woman who didn’t get the job she wanted or didn’t get the promotion, or who ran a race and lost, I say, go right back at it. Throw your hat back in the ring.”
Baker ended up winning the race by 40,361 votes. His victory put Republicans back at the top of Massachusetts state government, after eight years of exile under Patrick, whom Baker had tried unsuccessfully to unseat four years ago.
On Wednesday, Baker arrived a few minutes early for his first meeting with Patrick as governor-elect. He strode into the governor’s office, shook hands with a few Patrick staffers, then disappeared behind closed doors to meet with Patrick in his ornate suite.
The meeting was closely watched not only because of its symbolic importance, but also because Baker and Patrick were bitter rivals from the 2010 governor’s race and exchanged harsh words in this election.
Patrick, who campaigned energetically for Coakley, had accused Baker of having an “authenticity problem” for shedding many of his conservative positions from the 2010 campaign, and had said on election eve, “I feel like kicking a little Republican ass right now.”
Baker, in turn, repeatedly blamed Patrick for serious managerial problems, including bungled cases at the Department of Children and Families, the troubled rollout of medical marijuana dispensaries, and the costly failure of the state’s health care website.
And the unemployment website, as well as the horrors of Bridgewater, the state drug lab scandal, and meningitis murders to name three others off the top of my head.
On Wednesday, the two were scheduled to meet for 30 minutes but huddled for about 40. When they emerged to greet the press, both were cordial but displayed no warmth or rapport, as Baker stood a short distance from Patrick, his hands in his suit pockets. Both men took turns at the same microphone, speaking cordially, while dismissing repeated questions about the attacks they had traded during the race.
They vowed to work together to smoothly hand off the reins of power. Patrick said he had urged Baker to have fun in the job but said they had talked about more sober issues, including the state’s health care website and the threat posed by the Ebola virus.
The governor said he had urged Baker to “find the parts of the job that are fun and keep going back to those and let folks know you’re having a good time.”
“We as citizens, not just as people in public life, want our governors to succeed, and I want Charlie to succeed,” Patrick said.
Only in the evening did Baker seem to publicly savor his victory, when he hoisted a pint of Guinness at the Eire Pub in Dorchester, celebrating with supporters who had not gotten a chance to raise a glass in his honor Tuesday....
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Related:
"Charlie Baker, has gestated in Massachusetts political circles for more than three decades, a chief executive who arrives already widely known among the state’s establishment. Baker has held senior posts on Beacon Hill and filled a Swampscott selectman’s seat, helped start the state’s leading right-leaning think tank, led one of the region’s largest health insurance companies and gunned as a venture capitalist for smaller health care start-ups that helped build his wealth. In a press conference Wednesday, he noted that he had been involved in a tax policy ballot referendum in 1980, when he was 23 years old. And before the votes were counted, Baker associates said he would likely draw from all of those personnel pools in constructing a team that on Wednesday he called his highest priority."
The Globe tells me it will be the "best and the brightest."
Charlie Baker must deliver on his reformist vision
And quickly.
Falchuk wins bid to establish a state independent party
Gambling industry finds allies in former foes
Transit officials say repeal could cost $1b over decade
Waa, waa, waa.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Dear Democrats: It’s time to reform nominating rules
Will divided government work?
With change of governors, a shift in approach to the economy
Baker going to cut off the corporate welfare, is he?
Charlie Baker vows to tackle state’s opiate problem
Oh, right, another legacy of Patrick.
Charlie Baker’s next campaign
Casino developers get official working papers
The state collected a cool $85 million so soon after the election, huh?
I now que$tion the legitimacy of that vote.
For more under the dome....
