The New Agenda congratulates Attorney General Martha Coakley for raising more than $2 million in her first month as a candidate for MA Senator. The opinions expressed herein and those of the author and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

Martha Coakley was born in 1953, as stated on page six of her Bar Application. After growing up in Pittsfield and North Adams, Massachusetts, she went to Williams College and graduated in 1975 and moved to Boston University School of Law. In 1979, she began her work with the firm of Parker, Coulter, Daley & White and later moved to Goodwin Proctor LLP. In 1986, she became a member of the Middlesex district attorney’s office where she established herself as a protector of children.

Coakley has also distinguished herself as a prosecutor of clergy who allegedly abused children. In 2002, she was the first DA in the state to bring abuse-related criminal charges against a priest. … With her high profile in the clergy sexual abuse cases, Coakley was elected attorney general in 2006.

This victory made her the state’s first woman Attorney General. She continued her work to protect women and children, while the additional duties of her high rank has diversified her experience to give her the qualifications necessary to deserve becoming Massachusett’s first woman senator in the national government.

She was one of the first prosecutors to investigate the foreclosure crisis earlier in the decade, despite the difficulty in “that so much of what was done is legal that it’s hard to pinpoint criminal intent.” She convinced Goldman Sachs to adjust its lending practices. Unfamiliar with business, her main breakthrough came after she become Attorney General and conferred with “widely lauded law professor Elizabeth Warren, then of Harvard and now in charge of Congress’ financial rescue oversight board. Warren’s key insight was that loans ought to be regulated as consumer products.” Regarding the problem as a consumer issue enabled Coakley to investigate under the Massachusetts’ Consumer Protection Act. Recently, she used the Consumer Protection Act to place a restraining order on a company that lied to the customers about foreclosure relief and solicited illegal fees.

Coakley also went after health insurance companies when they violated Massachusetts laws by denying certain benefits to consumers. She succeeded in winning numerous lawsuits. Coakley said, “Consumers deserve to get what they are paying for and to feel confident that insurers will comply with state laws relating to required benefits.”

From 2001 to 2002, she served as president of the Massachusett’s District Attorney’s Association. Throughout the years, Coakley has been honored and recognized by Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, and the Victim Rights Law Center.

In 1998, she was named Woman of the Year by the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and in November 2000, the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts honored Coakley with its coveted
Leila J. Robinson Award for her contributions to the field of law. In June 2002, the YWCA Boston selected Coakley as a member of its Academy of Women Achievers Class of 2002. In January 2004, District Attorney Coakley received the Greater Boston Chamber
of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award for Excellence in Management in Government. And in May 2006, the Massachusetts Democratic Party with its prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Award honored Coakley.

She has been keeping an eye on a Senate seat since 2004 when John Kerry ran for the presidency, which would have left his seat vacant. However, this upcoming special election is her first chance to become politically involved on a much larger scale than before.

Coakley told her supporters she decided to run “because government should work well and it has to work for everyone,” adding that the performance of government “has been in some ways disheartening and discouraging.”

“I believe now is the time to move beyond the idea of, well, `It’s good enough for government work,’ and demand a new standard of excellence. And I know that I need to prove to voters across the commonwealth that I am the best candidate and that I would be the best new senator from Massachusetts,” Coakley said

As of September 18th, Coakley is now leading in the primary with 47 percent of the popular vote while the other candidates drag behind.  At a formal fundraiser luncheon, Coakley was awarded by the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, which was named in honor of Abigail Adams.  She also received numerous endorsements from prominant women as well as two dozen state legislators. Coakley’s victory will make her Massachusett’s first woman US senator.

‘‘There’s just a real sense of excitement that she’s qualified and she’s got the whole package,’’ said Senate President Therese Murray. ‘‘Women have never been at this point in Massachusetts before for this office.’’