Martha Coakley has a problem with selective prosecution.
Jim McKenna really presses her on her lack of effectiveness on illegal immigration and public corruption in this debate. He is much stronger in this appearance than he was their last debate on NECN’s Broadside.
We’ve got the debate video, and the background to help you understand some of the exchanges in the debate.
More video and analysis after the jump.
 Student Immigration Movement on State House steps |
A Special Report: Tax returns and annual reports past due
AFSCME, SEUI the Boston Teachers Union/AFT, Mass Equality, New World Foundation major donors
The Student Immigration Movement, a Boston based non-profit and advocacy group for the federal immigration DREAM Act and its parent organization, Neighbor to Neighbor, have failed to file the required financial disclosure forms with the office of State Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Martha Coakley
Martha Coakley has been bitten by her own hubris again – her campaign is limited to spending $650,000.
Thinking that she would run for Attorney General unopposed, Martha Coakley opted for public campaign financing. She received $75,000 of public campaign funds but is now limited to spending just $650,000 to run for a statewide office.
Coakley famously lost her race against Scott Brown for the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. It was supposed to be an easy victory for Coakley. But Coakley took the race for granted. She ran a weak campaign, and appeared aloof and entitled.
Jim McKenna
It’s looking like Jim McKenna will have enough write-in votes to be on the ballot for Attorney General in November. McKenna needs 10,000 votes to get on the ballot. Complete results are not out yet, but with about 10% of towns reporting it looks like McKenna already has 5,922 votes.
McKenna’s web site is has a big banner up on it:
WE DID IT
It is Big! I Mean Really Big!
We didn’t just make it – We Crushed it!
Record-Breaking – Historical – Undisputable!
Will be fun for all of us to watch over next couple of days as Massachusetts media and the Coakley Machine finally discovers it, verifies it, then verifies it again…Martha Coakley has an opponent
and his name is Jim McKenna.Thank You all Very Much -
You made this happen!
McKenna Critical of Coakley over Public Corruption and Cape Wind Contract Details
[section_spacer]
Hector Montalvo has posted an interesting interview with Jim McKenna, the Republican write-in Candidate running against Martha Coakley for Attorney General.
It’s worth watching the whole interview. Jim hit Martha Coakley hard on two issues.
In the years while Coakely has been Attorney General, she has not been aggressive in fighting public corruption. The most visible issue has been the patronage scandal at Probation. For years it has been an open secret that certain key legislators, like Thomas Petrolati, Robert DeLeo and others, were using the Probation Department to give jobs to friends, family and political supporters.
Martha Coakley hasn’t done anything about it. Chief Justice Robert Mulligan finally had to intervene himself, suspend the Probation Commissioner, John O’Brien, and appoint his own investigator Paul Ware. One of the attorney generals primary functions is to prosesute public corruption.
Thomas Petrolati
The Globe on Sunday has a very important article about Rep. Thomas Petrolati’s attempts to thwart the investigation into the patronage scandal at the probation department.
Petrolati is at the center of some of the most egregious patronage abuses. His wife Kathleen is a top manager at Probation. A former aide, Andre Pereira, and the husband of his current aide, Colleen Ryan all have Probation jobs that pay more than $74,000. Â Scores of financial supporters have also received jobs at the Probation Department. And Petrolati is a close friend of Probation Commissioner John “Jack” O’Brien, who was suspended in May after the Globe revealed a pattern of political favoritism in hiring.
| Candidate | Media | Finance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| » Jim McKenna (R) |   | write-in | |
| » Martha Coakley (D) |    | incumbent |
Jim McKenna needs to get 10,000 write-in votes in the primary to get on the ballot against Martha Coakley in the general election. Find out how.
[cache_code file="profile_appeal.html"]
Chief Justice Robert Mulligan in 2008
Tensions between the Judiciary and the Legislature have simmered for years over the legislators use of the courts as a source of patronage jobs for the politically connected. This year’s budget process may have finally set off a battle between the Judiciary and the Legislature which will play out during the election season.
Martha Coakley
One of the interesting numbers in the recent Suffolk University poll, that is not much talked about, is Coakley’s surprisingly high unfavorability numbers.
Q7. Is your opinion of Martha Coakley generally favorable or generally unfavorable?
Never heard …………………….. 1%
Favorable ………………………. 40%
Unfavorable ……………………. 52%
Heard of/Undecided …………… 6%
This is a pretty bad number for someone who was within a few percentage points of winning a senatorship. One thing that is especially bad for Coakley is that just 1% of the respondents had never heard of Coakley. Not surprising after the massive amount of campaign advertising in her recent Senate race. It’s difficult for politicians to improve unfavorability numbers – and especially hard for a prosecutor – unless they get a big case that is out in  front of the public. read more
About
Taking Down Scotty Brown
Scott Brown
Could any Dems topple #41 in six weeks?
Now that the 2010 election is behind us, we can begin to focus on the truly important task of governing. Just kidding. We’re just going to focus on the 2012 election.
The speculation about which Democrat could beat Scott Brown officially began on January 20, but it has already ramped up in the 36 hours or so since all of #41′s endorsees got trounced at the polls. In the Globe today, Alan Wirzbicki tossed out names like Congressman Mike Capuano and Alan Khazei (both of whom fell to Coakley in last year’s primary), Congressman Stephen Lynch, Newton Mayor Setti Warren, and even financial executive and social security wiz Bob Pozen.
read more »