"Caution, ambition mix in Coakley’s methodical journey" by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | November 17, 2009
This Senate campaign, her longtime friends and close family members say, is in many ways her destiny....
In interviews, admirers of Coakley invariably mention her knowledge of Broadway musicals, her skills as a downhill skier, and her penchant for reciting witty poems she pens for departing employees at going-away parties, a custom she picked up from her late father, an insurance salesman in North Adams. But Coakley seems to take pains on the campaign to hide that side of herself, preferring to studiously make a case about why she is the most qualified candidate.
In the only televised debate with her three Democratic rivals to date, she seemed almost intentionally bland. In public remarks, she often appears to be fastidiously scripted. In what are supposed to be spontaneous situations, she looks stiff. She didn’t even want to show a Boston Herald reporter what kind of candy she was giving out on Halloween night. It wasn’t until last week that she made one of her first gambles, when she said she opposes the landmark health care bill passed by the House because it would restrict federal funding for abortion.
Coakley, who at 56 wants to become the first woman elected senator in Massachusetts, is unapologetic for her ambition and her style....
“She’s easy on the eyes and easy on the ears.’’
Coakley and O’Connor, now a security consultant, live in Medford and have two Labrador retrievers. They have no children, but Coakley says she has no regrets about having focused on her career. “Frankly, until I met my husband, marriage wasn’t a huge priority for me,’’ said Coakley....
She drew charges of overzealousness when she fought to keep former Malden day-care worker Gerard Amirault behind bars for sexually assaulting children. Coakley was not involved in the prosecution of Amirault, his sister, and mother in the 1980s. But she strenuously opposed the Parole Board’s 2001 recommendation that his sentence be commuted despite doubts about investigators’ tactics. “Martha Coakley was a very, very good soldier who showed she would do anything to preserve this horrendous assault on justice,’’ said Dorothy Rabinowitz, a Wall Street Journal columnist who championed the Amiraults’ innocence.
That's worthy of a notation! Go get 'em, Martha!!!
Coakley conceded that some prosecutions of the era were mishandled because of suggestive questioning of children but said the evidence against the Amiraults was formidable....
As reporters watch her every move.....
she is not in her element....
This was the sole opportunity Coakley gave a Globe photographer and videographer to film her for an extended period. Her campaign is unusually guarded in granting access to the candidate. She has dragged her feet in terms of agreeing to more televised debates. When her husband finally consented to an interview, it was at campaign headquarters with his wife sitting across the table from him, and he was visibly nervous....
No offense intended, but we know who is wearing the pants in that marriage.
Actually, I'm feeling kind of turned on!
Also see: Coakley's Missing Case
Choking on Coakley For Senate
Poor Martha Coakley
Crawling Up Martha Coakley's....
Massachusetts Meets Its Next U.S. Senator
"Coakley released a proposal yesterday for energy reform, calling for a national cap-and-trade program to curtail greenhouse gas emissions"
And here she goes farting in the bed!!!!
"Pagliuca takes on foes on health care; In a notably tepid Senate campaign, he provokes heated replies by rivals" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | November 20, 2009
The placid campaign for US Senate was jolted yesterday by an unusually heated exchange, as Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen G. Pagliuca criticized two of his rivals over health care and both of them immediately fired back....
Within minutes of Pagliuca’s press conference, Coakley met with reporters and called Pagliuca’s description of the health care debate “a false choice’’ and “a red herring.’’ Coakley also plans to launch a television ad today that, in part, bemoans Wall Street greed....
The exchange shows the degree to which the campaign’s temperature has risen with just 18 days left until the primary election.... Coakley responded within minutes, inviting reporters to meet her after she toured a pharmaceutical company in Cambridge....
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"Candidates spar at BU forum over green credentials" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | November 18, 2009
Seeking to woo environmentalists, the four Democrats running for US Senate held a virtual green-off yesterday, touting the gas-friendly vehicles they drive, the clean energy policies they support, and their own minor contributions to saving the planet....
During a 90-minute forum held at Boston University and sponsored by several environmental groups, all the candidates said more should be done to combat global warming, and all said they would promote public transportation as a way to lower carbon emissions. And, in a significant break with the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the man they are running to succeed, all have said they support a wind farm in Nantucket Sound....
The four Democrats, who will face off in a special primary election Dec. 8, differed slightly on how they would vote on a pending climate change bill, which currently includes incentives for nuclear power and offshore drilling....
All four candidates said they oppose such drilling....
All of the candidates professed to recycle....
Attorney General Martha Coakley.... compost piles in backyard....
Coakley was the only one open to providing federal subsidies for nuclear power, saying “nuclear can’t be off the table.’’
Oh, Martha!!!!!!
City Year cofounder Alan Khazei repeatedly chastised Coakley for taking campaign donations from lobbyists and political action committees.... “I’m curious Martha, I have a question for you,’’ Khazei said before several audience members started hissing. “Do you think that the big oil industry lobbyists that are raising money for your campaign and contributing to you will expect you to side with them, or the citizens who want climate change?’’
“I’ve always disclosed where I get my money from,’’ Coakley responded. “And I’ve always made my decisions based upon the merits of the issue.’’
Coakley said [she] drives a Ford Escape....
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"Going negative has risky allure for Coakley rivals" by Matt Viser and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | November 19, 2009
Coakley rarely had to defend herself and also rarely said anything memorable.
At an environmental forum this week, Capuano.... directly challenged Khazei. He never did the same with Coakley. When Khazei directly criticized Coakley about accepting donations from lobbyists and political action committees, audience members hissed at Khazei....
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"Foreign trip experience in Senate race varies; Coakley less well-traveled; Capuano goes mostly on policy-oriented jaunts" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | November 29, 2009
In the short campaign to succeed Edward M. Kennedy - who spent part of his childhood in London and was a leading international voice on a wide range of foreign policy issues - the public discussion has focused mostly on domestic issues such as health care and the economy. But foreign policy is likely to take center stage this week, because President Obama plans to address the nation Tuesday night about Afghanistan, and the four Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts have a televised debate scheduled during the hour before the president’s speech.
A chief role of a US senator is to weigh in on matters that have an impact across the globe, including the ratification of treaties; the senior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kerry, is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The four Democratic Senate candidates, who will face off in a primary election Dec. 8, have had no significant foreign policy differences, but bring very different kinds of personal experience to the debate....
Attorney General Martha Coakley, who grew up in a family of modest means in Berkshire County and has worked for years in county and state government, is by far the least well traveled of the Democrats. Other than a summer trip to Normandy led by a group of nuns, she had not left the country before college, and since then her travels, to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, have been mostly for vacations....
Who cares? As long as she doesn't vote for any more wars, I'm fine with the lack of carbon footprints at taxpayer expense.
Coakley has not traveled in her role as attorney general, has taken only one work-related trip - an Anti-Defamation League-sponsored trip to Israel - and has traveled for pleasure to Europe, Egypt, India, and Japan....
Figures! The one trip she makes is that war-criminal stain!
Coakley, who has the least foreign travel experience, said she believes she is prepared to face foreign policy questions:
“Travel may be broadening but it may not be depthening, if that’s a word. The fact that you’ve been somewhere may or may not be relevant to how you think about problem-solving.’’
Right.
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So who is liking her?
"Coakley has been endorsed by politically active women including Senate President Therese Murray, philanthropist Barbara Lee, and more than two dozen female state lawmakers. Coakley has also been endorsed by EMILY’s List, a political group based in Washington that raises money for Democratic women who support abortion rights.
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"In snub, 4 Somerville politicians back Coakley" by Jonathan Saltzman and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | November 28, 2009
In a slap at a native son, four prominent politicians who have represented Somerville in recent years endorsed Attorney General Martha Coakley for the US Senate yesterday over US Representative Michael E. Capuano....
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So what do the POLLS say?
"Coakley leads, but electorate unsettled; In Globe poll, 50 percent remain undecided; Capuano running 2d, but far behind AG" by Frank Phillips and Matt Viser, Globe Staff | November 22, 2009
Attorney General Martha Coakley has a solid lead in the four-way Democratic race for the open US Senate seat, but with just 16 days until the primary election, nearly three-quarters of likely voters have yet to decide who they will support, according to a Globe poll.
Coakley gets the support of 43 percent of respondents when asked who they would vote for if the primary were held today. US Representative Michael Capuano has support from 22 percent of the likely voters; Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca from 15 percent, and City Year cofounder Alan Khazei from 6 percent.
The poll indicates Coakley is in a position of formidable strength among the state’s likely Democratic primary voters. Fully 71 percent of the respondents viewed Coakley favorably. She is by far the best-known candidate, with 91 percent name recognition. She is the candidate the likely voters see as the most qualified, best able to understand the problems of people like them, most desirable to have a beer with, and most likely to win....
Pfffft!
I don't know; I would probably choose Pags on that one, maybe Khazei!
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