Candidates Coakley, Baker clash at chamber forum

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BOSTON — With the campaign taking on an increasingly sharper tone, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker and Democratic nominee Martha Coakley squared off Wednesday morning before an audience of business leaders over a range of issues, including super PACs, child welfare, and Baker’s former private-sector salary.

The debate hosted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce reprised a number of themes raised during a televised encounter just 12 hours earlier, though unlike that debate, the three independent candidates for governor were not present at the Westin Hotel.

Debate moderator Bob Oakes, of WBUR-FM, gave both candidates an opportunity to directly ask their supporters to pull negative super PAC adds runs by their supporters. Both declined, though Coakley said she would call for an end to the ads if Baker would agree to a so-called ”people’s pledge” limiting outside spending in the campaign.

”If Charlie will do it, I will do it,” Coakley said.

Baker said it was Coakley supporters who launched the first super PAC attack ad, which included a reference to Baker’s $1.7 million salary as chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

”As far as I’m concerned she doesn’t have credibility on this issue,” said Baker. The Republican has said he does not like the tone of an ad that criticizes Coakley’ s record on child protection issues — an ad that Coakley has termed ”disgusting,” but he said Wednesday that the ad raised a legitimate question about why the attorney general declined to settle a lawsuit from a child advocacy group that challenged the state’s foster care system.

Coakley, while agreeing that Baker saved Harvard Pilgrim from bankruptcy, again questioned his salary. Baker retorted that Coakley, as attorney general, ”never said boo” about the salary, even while her office was overseeing nonprofit corporations.

That led to an odd exchange in which Coakley said she was not attorney general when Baker received the salary increases. She later told reporters that she ”misspoke” about the timing, but added her office had no power over the salaries of nonprofit executives.

During Tuesday’s debate, Baker, who was brought in to help stabilize the health care giant’s finances, defended his work, arguing that if Harvard Pilgrim had collapsed ”thousands of people in Massachusetts would have lost their jobs, and a whole series of very important health care institutions would have gone away.”

The election is Nov. 4.

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