From the Boston Globe
Deputy Managing Editor Brian McGrory had a few words to say about the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy:
If you’re a registered voter in Massachusetts, your friendly Democratic Senate candidate, Martha Coakley, is sticking her thumb in your eye. Coakley, in exquisitely diva-like form, is refusing all invitations to debate her Republican opponent in the race, Scott Brown, unless a third-party candidate with no apparent credentials is included on the stage. She may also require a crystal bowl of orange-only M&Ms in her dressing room…
We tend to elect our members of Congress for life in this state, especially when they’re Democrats, which they usually are. This particular race, a special election, has unfolded at breakneck speed. We have two barely known candidates — Coakley has run statewide just once, Brown is a state senator from exurbia — trying to fill a huge void at a time of war and economic upheaval. And Coakley’s overriding strategy is to quietly back into the job, to have you, the voter, know less about the major candidates rather than more…
let’s take a look at Coakley’s campaign schedule for today. Well, actually, we can’t. There isn’t one. She isn’t doing anything in public — no meetings with voters, no debates, no public appearances. For all we know, she’s spending much of her time at home with the shades drawn waiting for Jan. 19, Election Day, to come and go…
The funny part about a good campaign is that voters not only get to meet the candidate, but the candidate gets to meet the voters and learn what’s on their minds…dodging looks like the Coakley way.
Brown trails Coakley by less than 10 points, which is not bad, considering that he’s running in a very blue state. Since special elections like this one are often decided on who turns out to vote, the Globe’s stinging piece can’t but hurt Coakley. We’ll see what happens.