Baker, a novice against Patrick, ran a bad campaign. But he’s looking better already.
Coakley and Grossman are frequently mentioned as future gubernatorial candidates and Murray isn’t ruling out a run. But each Democrat has an image challenge, and so does their party.
Murray is mired in a web of questions about a mysterious December car crash, and news reports that, until recently, the executive director of a local housing authority was raising money for him in possible violation of state and federal law. After her infamous loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to Republican Scott Brown, Coakley won reelection as AG, and is taking on some high-profile causes. But she still has to fight the fallout from a defeat so distressing it plunged the White House into gloom. Grossman, a longtime Democratic fundraiser who won election to his first office in 2010, has had to answer questions about accepting political contributions from an industry his office regulates.
Together, these would-be governors represent an entrenched party of familiar names and worn faces. In an extreme example of a party’s beaten visage, John Kerry, 68, a US senator since 1985, is currently sporting two black eyes and a broken nose - injuries his staff said are the result of a hockey game.
With the exception of Brown, the names associated with the congressional delegation have been around forever. US Representative Niki Tsongas, who was elected in 2007, went to Washington in the footsteps of her husband, the late Paul Tsongas. After three decades in Washington, US Representative Barney Frank, 71, recently announced that he will retire. But Joseph P. Kennedy III, the grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy, quickly positioned himself as Camelot’s heir for a run for Frank’s seat.
