© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Attorney General Martha Coakley Announces Run For Governor

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has announced a run for governor.  She joins an already crowded Democratic field for the 2014 election.

Stressing  job creation, economic development, and education the state’s  top prosecutor, Martha Coakley entered the 2014 fray for governor Monday morning.  She greeted people at a diner in her home town of Medford, the first stop in what her campaign said will be a three-day barnstorming swing that will take her to 18 cities across the state.  Her campaign tour was scheduled to hit western Massachusetts Tuesday.

Coakley also released a video on her campaign website.

If Coakley succeeds in being elected governor it would mark a dramatic political comeback from her shocking loss in the 2010 special Senate election to Republican Scott Brown.

Coakley enters the race for the Democratic nomination for governor as the presumptive frontrunner, according to Tim Vercellotti, a professor of political science at Western New England University.

But Coakley will be forever dogged by her failure in 2010 to keep the Senate seat  held for nearly 50 years by Ted Kennedy in Democratic hands.

Although Coakley is rated as one of the state’s most popular politicians in public opinion polls, it is not clear if Democratic activists want her at the top of the ticket, according to Mike Shea, a Democratic political analyst.

Another of the Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls State Treasurer Steve Grossman has spent months traveling the state and lining up support  from  party activists and  local officials.  He has secured the backing of at least  two powerful politicians in western Massachusetts--Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno.

Coakley is expected to be endorsed by Emily’s List, a national political group whose mission is to elect women to office. Massachusetts has never elected a female governor. Former Lt. Gov. Jane Swift became acting governor in 2001, but did not seek the office in the 2002 election.

The Democratic field for governor also includes national security expert Juliette Kayyam, former Medicare and Medicaid administrator Donald Berwick and biotech executive  Joseph Avellone.   State Senate Dan Wolf suspended his campaign while he contests an Ethics Commission ruling.

Massachusetts Congressman Mike Capuano is expected to make a decision about running for governor in a few weeks.

Charles Baker, who was the Republican nominee for governor in 2010, is the only announced Republican candidate for 2014.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
Related Content