In this January photo, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley addresses a breakfast meeting of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at a hotel in Boston.
Associated Press
Martha Coakley, the Democrat who famously lost the Senate race that launched Republican Scott Brown as a national figure, appears to be struggling in her campaign to become governor of Massachusetts.
Ms. Coakley, who is the state’s attorney general, is tied with Republican Charlie Baker in the Boston Globe’s weekly poll. She had 37% support, compared with 38% for Mr. Baker.
It would be a remarkable turn of events for Massachusetts to select a Republican governor after giving two terms to Democrat Deval Patrick and electing liberals Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to the U.S. Senate in recent years. But Massachusetts has a history of placing Republicans in the governor’s office – among them, in recent decades, William Weld, Paul Cellucci and, most famously, Mitt Romney.
Ms. Coakley was considered the favorite in the January 2010, special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. But voters instead chose Mr. Brown, whose success in succeeding the Senate’s most famous liberal lion made him an instant star within the GOP. Ms. Coakley was widely criticized that year for running a lackluster, play-it-safe campaign.
Mr. Brown later lost his bid for election to a full Senate term and is now running for a Senate seat in New Hampshire.
Mr. Baker has long cut an interesting path through Massachusetts, serving as chief executive of nonprofit health plan Harvard Pilgrim Health Care at a time when the state was implementing its universal health care law. Among several stints in state government, he has been the Massachusetts health secretary and finance secretary. He was the GOP nominee for governor in 2010, losing to Mr. Patrick.
Massachusetts is one of the few states that has not yet held party primaries this year, and Ms. Coakley has competition for the nomination. But the Globe survey suggested she was in good shape for the Sept. 9 party primary.
The Globe survey included 605 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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