Terms of Endearment Can Get You in Trouble on Campaign Trail

By Matt Murphy
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Playfully referring to Bill Weld on the campaign trail as “boss,” because you worked for his administration in the 1990s, is one thing.

Calling a female reporter “sweetheart,” on television no less, is another. Charlie Baker learned the difference the hard way.

The enduring images from the campaign trail this week were a study in contrasts for the Baker and Martha Coakley campaigns. While Baker was sheepishly apologizing for dropping the S-word on a FOX 25 reporter, Coakley was out campaigning with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, perhaps the most popular politician in the state, second only to Gov. Deval Patrick, who is not, he repeats not, leaving to become U.S. attorney general.

“You’ve got three good women here,” Warren said, walking up to the small gaggle of reporters who had spent the morning listening to the senior senator, Coakley, and Roxbury Community College President Valeria Roberson talk about how to keep college tuition down. “I just said,” Coakley chimed in, “You got the senator, the president and the general. It’s a pretty imposing group.”

More than Coakley’s proposal to help families save and pay for college (it’ll cost $250 million), or Baker’s exuberance over the idea of cutting red tape and bureaucracy (he’s going to “climb all over this one all day every day”) this was a week dominated, for better or worse, by one word. And, no, Baker was not trying to channel his inner Mitt Romney, though he said he does call his wife, Lauren, by the term.

The incident, aside from diverting attention away from the weeds of substantive policy differences where Baker likes to roam, also hurt the Republican by keeping the focus where Coakley wants it, on women and women’s issues where she plays strongest.

Click here to subscribe to MASSterlist, a free morning newsletter by State House News Service that highlights political news from a wide array of newspapers and journals in Massachusetts and New England.

Democrats sought to make Baker pay for the gaffe, telling anyone who would listen that Baker’s use of the word “sweetheart” was not a mistake, or a joke from a sometimes goofy candidate gone awry. No, it was the latest in a series of examples of Baker’s disregard for women and the issues they care about, they said.

Baker tried to counter by pointing to the legions of women he has surrounded himself with in his professional life. Whether his apology will be enough remains to be seen. But for now, Baker found himself for the first time in a poll against Coakley leading the Democratic nominee for governor, albeit by two points and within the margin error. Poll watchers and pundits have slowly started to move the Massachusetts governor’s race from likely Democrat to a “toss up.”

Cue the national party. The November mid-terms are expected to be bad enough for the Democrats. They don’t need to lose the State House in Massachusetts, too.

President Barack Obama rode into town into 2010, ostensibly hoping to pull Coakley’s much-maligned U.S Senate campaign from the fire, but the Scott Brown embers were already burning too hot. It was too little, too late.

This time the White House is sending FLOTUS, which should fit nicely into Coakley’s glass-ceiling themed campaign, especially since Michelle Obama is probably more popular than her husband right now, even in bleed-blue Massachusetts. The president’s job approval numbers are actually underwater in Massachusetts, according to the latest SocialSphere poll for the Boston Globe.

Michelle Obama’s visit to Dorchester next Friday should help generate a little buzz for Coakley, and perhaps more importantly give her campaign a fundraising jolt to narrow her cash deficit with Baker.

A forum sponsored by the Providers’ Council at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on Wednesday made news because it brought the candidates for governor - four of them, at least - to the same stage for the first time since the general election began almost three weeks ago.

The takeways from the non-debate, however, were to be expected. Baker, Coakley and independents Evan Falchuk and Jeff McCormick have deep respect for the human services provider community. They will all fully implement a law known as Chapter 257. The Patrick administration has been sued over its implementation of that law, which was designed to increase reimbursement rates for providers. Also, you can expect a summit on domestic violence regardless of who is elected.

Going back to the whole U.S. attorney general topic, Eric Holder’s decision to resign from the Obama Cabinet led to a brief, but sustained period of elevated blood pressure for those who write and report about this stuff daily. Would this finally be it? Is Deval leaving for D.C.?

“Can’t believe this happened the one day he’s going to D.C.?” texted a Patrick confidant. Because, you see, Patrick traveling to WashingtonThursday afternoon for an unrelated commitment, hours after the Holder news broke, only intensified the speculation - until Patrick got on camera to set the record straight.

“That’s an enormously important job but it’s not one for me right now,” Patrick said while campaigning in Hudson with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Stephen Kerrigan. And just like that, Bill Galvin’s inaugural plans were once again put on hold.

Patrick still has three months left in office, and he said he plans to use them. After all, there are still judges to get confirmed and scores to settle.

The governor’s attempt to put controversial Parole Board chair Josh Wall on the bench churned through its second day before the Governor’s Council en route to a third hearing next week when Wall will finally get to answer questions from the council now that all the witnesses have said their piece.

Patrick, back in Massachusetts after travelling abroad, also offered the explanation for his ouster of the top two officials at the sex offender registry board that his staff could not last week.

Still harboring hard feelings about a case involving his brother-in-law that became campaign fodder in 2006, Patrick said a pattern of management problems at the Sex Offender Registry Board, including the Supreme Judicial Court overturning several of its decisions and a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former hearing officer, eroded his confidence to the point of no return.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Careful who you call sweetheart.

SHOUT OUT LOUD(S): For your Friday listening pleasure, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaTuE8yvE3s&noredirect=1