I was surprised to hear that Coakley broke with her cautious campaign strategy to toss her weight around in the small town of North Adams. If you haven’t heard, the AG has endorsed the challenger to Mayor Barret, who has served the 14,000 residents of North Adams for the past 26 years.
Kennedyseat.com thought that “it is rare for a candidate in a race of her own, like Coakley, to weigh-in during a local election, even more rare when both candidates are Democrats”.
IMO this is an especially surprising move in light of Coakley’s hesitancy to campaign while AG. The AG has not been seen stumping much in MA and would not even answer questions about her campaign, going as far as to duck into a souvenir shop to avoid a reporter’s questions (and don’t tell me she was wearing her AG hat while in the souvenir shop!). Remember this exchange?
Chabot: “Can you explain why, as a Senate candidate, you’re not speaking to your campaign finance records?”
Mean Martha: “No, thank you.”
Chabot: “Why can’t you explain that?”
Mean Martha: “I’m not going to talk to you about it. Anybody else have any questions? Thanks.”
So why break with her cautious approach in order to endorse in a small town municipal election? Coakley claims in her press release that she endorsed Alcombright because he is an old friend.
GregR says it…
“is being interpreted as a direct knock on incumbent mayor John Barrett, who, along with North Adams Rep. Dan Bosley had endorsed Mike Capuano.”
So Alcombright endorses Coakley, then Barrett endorses Capuano, and that motivates Coakley to endorse Alcombright? I just can’t imagine an AG being that thin skinned. I also can’t imagine that her only reason for endorsing is because of a personal relationship.
Whatever the reason, it’s an oddly bold move by Coakley. Maybe she has turned over a bold new leaf (tis the season after all) and she will start answering reporters’ questions about her own campaign.
Does anyone know if she has endorsed any other candidates this year?
Don’t do anything to blow the lead.
How does an endorsement like this possibly benefit Coakley? Alcombright was already endorsing her, so she wont gain many votes by endorsing him (he is already encouraging his supporters to support her). And she will probably lose at least a few of Barretts supporters.
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p>It must be personal, because it makes no sense politically.
This strikes me as a really rash move.
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p>Seems like a strictly personal decision, especially since Coakley’s political strategy so far has been to keep her lips zipped and refrain from doing anything that could backfire and hurt her lead.
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p>I know Coakley is originally from North Adams, but has she had any political involvement there in the past 30 years? Has she ever come out and endorsed in a local election before this? I don’t think this goes beyond “Oh yeah? You’re going to endorse my opponent? Well then I’ll endorse yours too!”
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p> I doubt she would have endorsed Alcombright if she wasn’t running for senate. She’s been adament that she doesn’t want to politicize her role as AG, to the point that she won’t answer questions about her campaign. Surely she’d count an endorsement in such a small Mayor’s race a bold political move?
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p>To me, this looks impulsive and petty. I’m not impressed at all.