For all those who follow Massachusetts’ politics — especially the Democrats — the name Martha Coakley has a very infamous ring to it. Coakley has been serving as the Commonwealth’s Attorney General since 2007, but her infamy did not come until 2009, when Edward “Ted” Kennedy died and both national and Massachusetts Democrats looked to her to win the special election and take his place in the United States Senate. The race had national implications as her Republican opponent, Scott Brown, promised to be the 41st vote against U.S. President Barack Obama’s Health Care law. If Coakley could just accomplish the seemingly simple task of beating a Republican in Massachusetts, the administration would maintain a filibuster-proof majority.
Instead, she committed major gaffes such as calling Boston Red Sox hero Curt Schilling “another Yankee Fan,” and taking a five-day vacation with only 20 days left in the special election. After committing mistake after mistake, Coakley ended up losing to Scott Brown in what was one of the biggest election upsets in history.
Now Martha Coakley is back, looking to redeem herself with Massachusetts Democrats as she tries to capture the governor’s office. Once again, in a heavily Democratic state, many thought Coakley would have an easy nomination campaign and then coast to a win in the general election. But this election cycle has been anything but simple for the Coakley campaign.
While just about all political spectators assumed Coakley would be the Democratic nominee for governor, her nomination process was an intense fight. Coakley ran against Massachusetts Treasurer Steven Grossman and the former administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Services Donald Berwick. The nomination process was extremely competitive, and although Coakley eventually would go on to win, the tight race drained her campaign of resources, setting up for an even tougher general election campaign.
Coakley started the campaign off strong, and the majority of polls taken went in her favor. But things have changed massively since then, and the most recent string of polls have all been leaning toward Republican candidate Charlie Baker. In fact, The Boston Globe released a poll on Friday that had Baker up nine points, a staggering difference from what the polls looked like a few months ago. Obviously, polls are not what decide an election, but there is a big take away from these polls.
When looking at the general trend of the election and polls, it appears that Baker has been picking up momentum, and Coakley is fading. The closer we get to the election, the number of undecided voters in the polls shrinks, and the number of people who would vote for Baker increased. If this was not enough, it appears that Coakley is back to her original form, as she stated that she is open to raising taxes and that she was looking at ways of implementing a graduated income tax in the Oct. 21 debate sponsored by WGBH and The Boston Globe. These comments only gave more ammunition to Republicans, who attacked the comment from all angles.
If her fading in the polls was not enough, Charlie Baker has begun to pick up a series of endorsements from some of the Commonwealth’s major papers. All within a few weeks, Charlie Baker earned endorsements of The Lowell Sun, MassLive/The Republican, The Patriot Ledger, The Boston Herald and even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped in to endorse Baker.
This was surely a set back for the Coakley campaign, but perhaps the damage could’ve been mitigated if she picked up the endorsement of The Boston Globe, which has had a streak of endorsing Democratic candidates. But on Sunday, the Globe broke its 20-year streak of endorsing Democrats and endorsed Charlie Baker. The endorsement shocked the airwaves, as organizations like CNN and National Review reported the news with pure surprise.
We have just seven days until the general election in Massachusetts, and it appears the Coakley campaign is running out of steam, if it has not already collapsed. This past week was a big one for the Baker campaign; his nine-point lead in the polls and string of endorsements, capped by the Globe, has brought him one step closer to victory. Early polls and predictions led many to believe that this would be an easy race for Martha Coakley, but it appears to be nothing of the sort. With just seven days to go, Massachusetts may see another historic Republican victory, and another Coakley collapse.
