The Secrets of Their Successors
The Cause Célèbre
While Cahill has had to work hard to build a watchdog image, Attorney General Martha Coakley benefits from a job that naturally positions her in that role. In more than 20 years as a prosecutor, she has taken on a flurry of high-profile cases—she won prosecutions against the infamous British au pair Louise Woodward and several Catholic priests charged with sexual abuse—and become a familiar face for Massachusetts residents. In a recent Channel 7/Suffolk University poll, only 14 percent of respondents said they'd never heard of Coakley, while 48 percent said they had a positive view of her. By contrast, nearly twice as many people had never heard of Cahill and only roughly one in three said that they viewed him favorably.
If anything, the biggest knock on the AG might be that she's not been more politically opportunistic. In that way, she's the anti-Cahill: Her business-first attitude has earned her wide respect, but she lacks flash. Fortunately for her, Coakley's got supporters eager to join in the dance she's content to sit out.
Along with Bingham McCutchen partner and Coakley confidant Beth Boland, top-tier fundraiser Barbara Lee will cohost an October 21 fundraiser for the AG at the Liberty Hotel. Boland, who served as Coakley's finance chair during her run for attorney general, says the event will feature the city's "top businesswomen," many of whom were key in Hillary Clinton's primary win in Massachusetts. Maybe even more important than the money it'll generate, the soiree will be a show of political strength for women still smarting from Clinton's close nomination loss.
For a number of them, that disappointment has hardened their support for Coakley, who, no matter which contest she enters, is likely to be the only woman in the field. "What I really sense and feel is such a great sense of passion, frustration, resolve coming out of the presidential election," says Boland, who cochaired the New England Lawyers for Hillary group. "We're going to circle the wagons around our gal."
Feminists like Lee—who says she's ready "to go to bat" for Coakley—have long aspired to raise the profile of female politicians in a state that has yet to elect a woman governor or senator. And after suffering through Jane Swift's helicopter-marred stand-in as governor and the tortured gubernatorial candidacies of Democrat Shannon O'Brien and Republican Kerry Healey, in Coakley, they just might have their standard-bearer. Coakley herself has much to gain from the relationship, since, as one analyst pointed out to me, she is much more a prosecutor than a politician—a polite way of saying she's not great at raising money. While there aren't exactly cobwebs growing inside Coakley's war chest, her $600,000 is paltry in comparison with Cahill's seven-figure stockpile.
The AG's union with jilted Clinton backers is good for more than just get-togethers at fancy hotels. Being able to use Clinton's organizational infrastructure could give Coakley an enormous advantage should she wind up seeking a Senate seat rather than the governor's chair—which, as it happens, is the office she seems best poised to pursue. Here's why: When a Senate seat opens midterm, a special election must be held between 145 and 160 days after it's vacated, with a primary coming six weeks before that. With only three months to get a campaign up and running (and bankrolled), having access to Clinton's well-oiled machine could be a big boost. If Coakley's so inclined, the Liberty event could be the perfect chance to start galvanizing the troops.
