Breaking: Martha Coakley throwing her hat into the Senate race

Who is she??? besides being the Attorney General for Massachusetts, what has she done
for the people of Massachusetts.

I find it audacious to make such a move just less than a week since the Senator pass.

She has completely turned me off by making this move, thats just me.

Anyone has the cake on this woman?? :shrug:

that you can tell those who do not live in the state??

and ran for Attorney General and won statewide as a Democrat. She has had some high profile cases including the nanny manslaughter trial as DA and successfully sued and re-couped some money from the big dig screw-ups. She was criticized, though, for dropping a lawsuit for damages when a part of the big dig roof fell on a car and killed a woman. I guess she thought it was un winnable. But all we really know about her is her law enforcement credentials. She hasn't had to position herself on abortion, health care, or any social and fiscal questions. I like her. She is a tough, no nonsense person. She was a solid DA and AG and I look forward to hearing her responses to other matters. I hold out hope she will be progressive in many matters.

take no shit candidate who goes to Washington and get changed by Washington.

I would like to know her position on health care, energy, education, religion,
housing and social attitudes, until then I will reserve my comments or
excitement.

Is she a DINO or an out an out progressive as was the late Senator??

had to answer to law and order questions. My rep, Stephen Lynch just entered the race. There's a guy who is in Washington and never raised a peep against George Bush and his war. I wrote to his office time and time again and never got an answer back. He's the type of candidate who should scare you. Martha Coakley deserves to be heard. She's an interesting woman. And I'm not saying I will vote for her or she is the candidate but her comments about Ted Kennedy made me perk up. She listed all Ted's progressive stances and sounded like she agreed with them. One other thing about her is that she has never put her family out there for props. She has done this all on her own. I didn't even know she was married until just recently and still don't know if she has any children. She is very independent and does things her way.

...I don't know anything about her and don't live in the state, but if you want to run you have to declare pretty soon, don't you think?

10,000 valid signatures (so 20,000 signatures in total or so) have to be submitted to the Sec of State's office by mid Oct.

Ah, I think that people HAVE to start declaring and running. This is a 4 month sprint to a primary and a little over a month to a general election in Jan.

When would you suggest people pull papers and start the race?

There is nothing wrong with candidates announcing now. As a matter of fact, they pretty much HAVE to if they want to stand a chance at getting an effective campaign going.

The potential candidates have to make moves within the next week or two if they want to collect the 10k signatures they'll need. Look for Lynch to announce next.
I'm guessing Markey and Capuano will throw their hats in the ring as soon as word comes from Joe Kennedy. They have both stated that they would not run if Joe decided to go for it.