STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press
BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker are moving on to November after winning the nominations of their respective parties for governor yesterday.
Coakley defeated state treasurer and former Democratic party chairman Steven Grossman and former federal health care administrator Don Berwick.
Baker, the 2010 GOP nominee for governor, will get another shot at winning the governor’s office after cruising to a decisive win over Mark Fisher, a tea party-affiliated business owner. A former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care executive, Baker lost four years ago to Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who is not seeking re-election.
Coakley also is seeking a reversal of political fortune after her upset loss to Republican Scott Brown in the 2010 special election to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. While that defeat led many within her party to question her effectiveness as a campaigner, she has repeatedly said that she has learned from her mistakes and will be a stronger candidate this time around.
While some pre-primary polls showed Coakley with a double-digit lead over her Democratic opponents, unofficial returns showed her winning only about 42 percent of the Democratic vote and leading Grossman by single digits.
Coakley took immediate aim at Baker, saying his economic policies would favor the rich.
“Charlie Baker believes that voters won’t remember that he ran as a tea party conservative in 2010,” Coakley told supporters in her victory speech.
“We believe that voters are smart enough to see through Charlie’s superficial transformation,” she added.
Baker told supporters that he and his running mate, former state Rep. Karyn Polito, would end what he called one-party government in Massachusetts by bringing independent leadership and fiscal discipline to Massachusetts.
“Our opponents are stuck in the past,” said Baker. “They’re proposing more spending, no reforms, higher taxes, and the continuation of the status quo.”
For Baker, 57, the primary helped him reinforce his image as a fiscally cautious but socially moderate leader and gave the Swampscott resident a chance to roll out a less buttoned-down image than during his 2010 contest.
The primary also allowed Baker, who supports gay marriage and abortion rights, to pick and choose those issues where he differs most sharply with Democrats.
Coakley, 61, grew up in western Massachusetts and now lives in Medford. She would be the state’s first elected female governor if she wins in November.
She has touted her leadership as attorney general on several issues, including a national settlement with mortgage lenders over the foreclosure crisis, and her office’s successful legal challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented legally married same-sex couples from obtaining certain federal benefits.
Coakley was criticized for ruling that a proposed ballot question calling for repeal of the state’s casino gambling law was unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, overturned Coakley’s decision and allowed the question on the ballot.
Though lukewarm in her support of casinos, Coakley has said she will vote against repealing the law, a position she shares with Baker.
Coakley will be paired with Stephen Kerrigan, a onetime aide to Kennedy, in the November election after Kerrigan defeated two other candidates in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Coakley will need to replenish her campaign coffers for the run against Baker. By the end of August she had spent down her campaign funds to below $200,000, while Baker reported nearly $1.2 million in his campaign account.
Grossman, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, was making his second bid for governor, while Berwick, who formerly headed Medicare in the Obama administration, was making his first run for elective office. Both pledged to strongly support Coakley in November.
There will also be three independent candidates on the ballot: Jeff McCormick, a venture capitalist from Boston; Scott Lively, a Springfield minister; and Evan Falchuk of Newton, who is running under the banner of the United Independent Party.
Turnout appeared sluggish around the state and around the city of Westfield. In Ward’s 3B and 4B, turnout was steady but numbers followed the statewide trend.
“My educated guess? People don’t come out at the primary because people don’t think it’s an important election,” said Christine Oswella, warden for Ward 3B who was working the polls with her three children Tuesday. “I think people hear on TV that it’s only going to be 15 or 20 percent, ‘well, I’m not going to bother going to vote.'”
In Ward 4B, Warden Lillian Hebert was far more optimistic about the day’s voting activity.
“We’re the largest ward in Westfield, so although it’s been slow, we’ve had a very good turnout,” she said at Highland Elementary School, the 4B polling station, at 6 p.m. “We usually have 2,000 votes for this area and I think we’re at about 400.”
Hebert said that lots of unenrolled voters showed up to the polls not knowing which ballot they would vote in.
“A lot of people aren’t sure who they want to vote for, so they have to read both ballots completely to see where their candidates are,” she said.
Many voters who normally vote in Republican primary voted Democrat this time around because they wanted to cast a vote in the race for District Attorney, which featured no Republican or Independent candidates.
Some registered city Republicans stuck to their ballots and wrote in candidates for DA, with one city man even casting a ballot for Nucky Thompson, Steve Buscemi’s character on the HBO Television series “Boardwalk Empire”.
Wards 3B and 4B both supported Westfield-born Republican gubernatorial candidate Fisher, who beat Baker in the city’s primary but lost to him by a 3-to-1 margin statewide.
“Baker probably has a better chance, but I’d like to see if the local guy can pull it out,” said one Ward 3B voter.
“I like what Fisher stands for,” said one Ward 3B woman.
Former Westfield Mayor George Varelas was standing outside Highland holding a sign for state Rep. John Velis, the Westfield Democrat who ran unopposed in the city’s Democratic primary.
Varelas said that the turnout was very poor, a product of what he referred to as “severe apathy.”
“Being a European, elections are a duty to me. Years ago in Athens, you were punished if you didn’t go to vote,” he said. “Many people do complain about things (politicians) do, either in the city, state or federal government, but if you examine them and ask if they voted, most likely they did not.”
City residents who participated in the Democratic primary were split in who they supported in that gubernatorial race.
“I supported Grossman because I was disappointed in Coakley only because there are things she should’ve known and done,” said one city woman who voted in Ward 4B. “And I think the people around her aren’t the best people. She doesn’t know what the gas tax rate is, she doesn’t know that you should go door-to-door campaigning. I was disappointed.”
“I think she’ll do a good job. She’s something,” said another Ward 4B woman of Coakley. “And plus isn’t she already the Governor?”
Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo and Westfield News Reporter Peter Francis contributed to this report.
