Massachusetts Democrats asked to help Martha Coakley with campaign money in race for governor

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last updated 8 January 2015

Massachusetts Democrats are scrambling to help out their nominee for governor, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, as she faces a serious financial disadvantage in a close race against Republican nominee Charlie Baker. Now, the state's 11 all-Democratic members of the House of Representatives are being asked to contribute $25,000 each from their own treasuries into the party's coordinated campaign fund.

On Wednesday, the senior Democrat in the Massachusetts House delegation, Rep. Richard E. Neal of Springfield, called his colleagues to a meeting with Coakley at the Capital Grille, a Boylston Street steak house, where six of the state's members of Congress showed up to turn over checks made out to the Democratic State Committee. [The Boston Globe]

Both of the state's U.S. senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, agreed to give an even greater $100,000 from their campaign accounts. However, three House members have not yet agreed to kick in $25,000: Bill Keating, who is in his own re-election fight; Stephen Lynch, who is low on money after he ran for Senate last year — and also has a local feud with Coakley; and finally, John Tierney, who lost his own primary for re-election in the wake of a long-running ethics scandal, and is not expected to give money for the party.

Coakley won a seriously competitive Democratic primary for governor, something that Baker did not have to deal with on the Republican side. Of course, Coakley has a history with suddenly close campaigns in Massachusetts — she was upset in the 2010 special election for the U.S. Senate by Republican Scott Brown.