By Kristina Wong

Jan 14, 2010 3:09pm

Martha Coakley: ‘We Don’t Know it’s Close’

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: On ABC’s “Top Line” today, we checked in with our colleague John Berman, who was in Massachusetts earlier in the week to cover the surprisingly close Senate race for Ted Kennedy’s old seat. At least — we all think it’s close. Democrat Martha Coakley told Berman that she isn’t so sure. “We don’t know it’s close — I just disagree that the polls are accurate,” said Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general. “We’ve got polls all over the map here, and one of the reasons is it’s a short race, people are sort of not making up their mind or changing their minds. That’s why a race like this has to focus on the issues, and on who’s running.” Democrats remain privately confident that Coakley will pull off a victory. But they are sounding some alarm bells nationally about the race, with Vicki Kennedy sending out a fund-raising appeal, President Obama recording a video message for Coakley, and former President Bill Clinton set to campaign alongside Coakley tomorrow. Republican Scott Brown told Berman that Democrats are being disingenuous in suggesting that he’s tied in tightly with the national GOP. “Let me make this really clear: The [Boston] Herald two weeks ago said that the GOP is abandoning me. And now Martha Coakley and the political machine would have you believe that Karl Rove, George Bush and everyone else is coming down, running my campaign — we have dinner every night,” said Brown, now a state senator. Watch the interviews, and our chat with John Berman, HERE.

User Comments

she will find out next Wednesday that the polls are pretty accurate. The only poll that has her ahead by 15% is the far left liberal rag, The Globe. Hoping that the GOP, independent and conservative dems go out and vote in droves. They can save America next Tuesday, and neuter Obama’s push to socialism. Them maybe OB will fix one of the many LIES he sold us and work across the aisle and get everyone together around he table and do the bill on C-Span. Corruption needs to be stopped and Obama is as corrupt as they come.

Posted by: Tony T | January 14, 2010, 3:31 pm 3:31 pm

Go Brown! We need you to help stop the Pelosi and Obama debt explosion!

Posted by: scott jeffries | January 14, 2010, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm

Since I do not want Obamacare to pass, I went to Scot Brown’s website and made a small donation.

Posted by: deanbob | January 14, 2010, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm

Well, I guess what you “don’t know”
can’t hurt you. Right, Martha?

Posted by: Sir Toby Belch | January 14, 2010, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm

She is a pathetic candidate, even amongst democrats. I’m from mass and know how bad they can be. My apologies to the rest of the country.

Posted by: jonny | January 14, 2010, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm

oh please, i love how people can in the same breath say polls are inacurate if the support the other candiate and accurate if they support yours. We will see Tuesday if it was close or not. Personally betting the dem will win, but who knows.

Posted by: chrome596 | January 14, 2010, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm

Martha is a proven candidate and hard worker who will extend Governor Mitt Romney’s Health Care Plan (now “rebranded” as Obama-Care) to the rest of the country.
Failure to pass health care would be a very un-Christian act!

Posted by: rockawheely | January 14, 2010, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm

The Coakley Campaign, After seeing all the bashing ads on tv for the last 2 weeks i have decided Scott Brown, has my vote. i have not heard one real issue discussed…just bashing and its wrong. So much BS..
Wonder how many other people feel this way too.

Posted by: Pam | January 14, 2010, 10:59 pm 10:59 pm

rockawheely wrote “Martha is a proven candidate and hard worker who will extend Governor Mitt Romney’s Health Care Plan (now “rebranded” as Obama-Care) to the rest of the country.
Failure to pass health care would be a very un-Christian act!”"
You couldn’t be more wrong on BOTH COUNTS!!
Cloaking a vote against a Socialist Obamacare as un-christian, is VERY UN-CHRISTIAN!!

Posted by: morphy | January 15, 2010, 8:56 am 8:56 am

Coakley is a proven Candidate? Proven to convict an innocent family for child abuse on evidence that even the tooth fairy couldn’t dream up maybe. And it would be un-Christian to deny health care reform? Yeesh! The group trying to give us health care reform are the Pharisees, for Heaven’s Sake! They propose these things for their own aggrandizement and for their own political gain. Is it really Christian like to enslave the masses in a government run system, after cutting political deals in secrecy to pass it, while allowing unions and politicians to opt out? Hmmmm . . . I don’t think Jesus would see that as loving your neighbor as you love your self.

Posted by: Bill | January 15, 2010, 9:07 am 9:07 am

I saw her latest ads stressing Brown’s objections to Obamacare- which is exactly the same message in his ads, and which is credited with his rising popularity! Therefore she is reiterating and emphasizing what appears to be a winning position for Brown- how’s that for clever campaigning!
I hope Brown wins in a landslide.

Posted by: JDComments | January 15, 2010, 9:39 am 9:39 am

All I can say is that the limited exposure I have had to Brown, on the news, made me feel rather positive towards him, as a man of some integrity, which is sorely lacking in Washington.
We shall see what the voters decide.

Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 15, 2010, 9:46 am 9:46 am

Coakley is a pretty dangerous candidate judging by her response in the final debate. She claimed that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan just days after a terrorist blew himself up and killed 7 CIA agents and days before another terrorist blew himself up in an Afghan marketplace killing civilian men, women, and children.
She is too entrenched in ideology to see reality and she won’t be a good senator.

Posted by: Martin | January 15, 2010, 9:49 am 9:49 am

Maybe if Coakley loses, the Dems will decide that 51 votes are a winning number and pass a more progressive health care reform bill? Gotta see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Posted by: cokids | January 15, 2010, 9:56 am 9:56 am

I agree with the comment about polls. The one that seems to completely out of step with the other polls is the Boston Globe one. The Boston Globe endorsed Coakley. When one reads the endorsement, it seems it was written by Coakley’s campaign. Furthermore, another article came up on the Globe basically campaigning for Coakley. So, anything from the Globe can not be trusted.

Posted by: FanDaElis | January 15, 2010, 11:30 am 11:30 am

Well, she tied her wagon to Obama. Let’s see how that horse will pull!!

Posted by: PappyHappy | January 15, 2010, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm

***Martha is a proven candidate and hard worker who will extend Governor Mitt Romney’s Health Care Plan (now “rebranded” as Obama-Care) to the rest of the country.
Failure to pass health care would be a very un-Christian act!
Posted by: rockawheely | Jan 14, 2010 8:10:01 PM***
In the book of Acts it is recorded that the early church gave of their own reasources to help the community at large, including opening of their homes to the destitute and the deacons and elders as well as giving money to the church to help in the betterment of the community.
I don’t remember reading anywhere where the early church petitioned Ceaser and the local governors to increase everyones taxes to help pay for improvements in the community.
Philanthropy isn’t asking the government to take away someone elses subsistance and give it to other people so that you can feel better about the situation.

Posted by: bobtherepublican | January 15, 2010, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm

‘You couldn’t be more wrong on BOTH COUNTS!!
Cloaking a vote against a Socialist Obamacare as un-christian, is VERY UN-CHRISTIAN!!’
Haha, I love how Americans never understand good sarcasm.
Dooraks…

Posted by: Evan | January 15, 2010, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm

Maybe if Coakley loses, the Dems will decide that 51 votes are a winning number and pass a more progressive health care reform bill? Gotta see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Are you suggesting that they would consider tort reform or portability? Doubtful. This argument never was about healthcare reform as much as it was about the government taking over 1/6 of the economy. Make no mistake, these dems are on a suicide mission to get this beast of a bill passed. Why else are they rushing to get it done?

Posted by: NOBama | January 15, 2010, 3:49 pm 3:49 pm

“We don’t know it’s close — I just disagree that the polls are accurate,” said Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general.
Sounds like she is in a little bit of denial, don’t you think? If Obama doesn’t go up to campaign, you know its over. It’ll be interesting to see if he does. I’m betting on a nail biter, hopefully with Brown coming out on top unless of course the Obama goons send Acorn in to do their dirty work!

Posted by: NOBama | January 15, 2010, 4:06 pm 4:06 pm

As a practicicing Catholic and emergency room nurse, I am going to vote for the republican this time. I am sure that Coakley understands.

Posted by: Maria | January 15, 2010, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm

Coakley’s an idiot, liar, or wishful thinker, probably all three.
Massachusetts has a chance to make history. The tide turned right here…
I trust Bay State AMERICANS to check the spread of PapaDoc Obamistide kleptosocialism on Tuesday.

Posted by: PJ_Godzilla | January 15, 2010, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm

Another do nothing Republican who only knows No,No and more No. People of Massachusetts want to move forward and not go back to the failed Republican policies of the past which resulted in the big mess America is in today. Brown is not part of the solution but is part of the problem. Hopefully,He will be rejected on Tuesday…..

Posted by: Johnny | January 15, 2010, 9:29 pm 9:29 pm

I’m in Massachusetts.
Allow me to explain what’s happening here in a nutshell.
There have been nine polls conducted on this race. Brown is ahead in exactly ONE – a Suffolk poll. The same disreputable polling firm that thought Corzine was ahead by 9 points just days before the NJ election. Go that? ONE POLL has him ahead. Another has him in a TIE with Coakley. She is ahead by high single digits or double digits in EVERY OTHER POLL. Look it up.
To wit:
The GMB/Research 2000 poll that came out TODAY has Coakley up by 8 points.
What’s happening here in Mass. is that we’re letting the GOP be loud and obnoxious until Tuesday. And then we’re going to elect Coakley. The only people I’ve heard who would vote for Brown are Republicans and a few indies. The indies here lean Democrat – and they’re going for Coakley. WE HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN WHAT BUSH DID TO US IN LESS THAN A YEAR.
Coakley wins Tuesday. COUNT ON IT.

Posted by: Mark | January 15, 2010, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm

Obama is going up Sunday. The Super-Secret Inner Democratic Sanctum must have decided they can’t hold the Blue Dogs in the House for any version of ObamaCare if Coakley goes down. A few may be willing to sacrifice their seats for socialism, but even Soros can only promise so many sweetheart jobs for the vanquished.
The late trip is as safe as he can be politically: if she wins even by a vote, he’ll claim he saved her, but if she loses she just ran too poor a race to be helped.

Posted by: Estragon | January 15, 2010, 11:31 pm 11:31 pm

1) Brown will win by 4 and
2) “coakleyed” will be the newest verb!

Posted by: Two Predictions | January 16, 2010, 12:44 am 12:44 am

You know that them dem will win by some slim margin they can’t explain. Seems like may close races like Minnesota where votes for the dem kept growing and growing and growing…..

Posted by: Greg | January 16, 2010, 1:19 am 1:19 am

I live in Massachusetts and it is full of liberals. I’m a Brown voter, but not very confident he will win. This state is just way to Democratic. It would be great if she could win so we could stop universal romneycare.

Posted by: Joe | January 16, 2010, 3:14 am 3:14 am

regarding last post it would be great if Scott Brown could win so we could stop univeral romneycare.

Posted by: Joe | January 16, 2010, 3:15 am 3:15 am

First and foremost, the source of our current economic crisis is the rapidly falling purchasing power of the middle class due to their increased burden of out-of-pocket medical expenses and lack of salary increases due to rapidly increasing employer healthcare costs. Even libertarian economists like John Williams of shadowstats.com have identified for years the widening structural gap between the falling purchasing power of the middle class and the needed level of purchases of goods and services to keep our economy afloat. This gap was filled under Greenspan by rapidly expanding consumer and corporate credit and more recently by rapidly expanding Federal credit. Neither are sustainable and both paths lead to disaster — we must control healthcare costs now if we are to save ourselves and our country.
How does Obamacare reduce costs? Both the House and Senate bills cap large insurer’s retained premium take at 15%. This is about half of what they retain now, but even more important, it removes the need for a large number of employees of health care providers whose assignment is to fight with their counterparts in the insurance companies to get claims paid.
Also the primary savings in Medicare are in eliminating Medicare Advantage and having Medicare insure directly. This reduces the retained premiums from 30% to 5% as well as eliminating the need for extra employees at health care providers to fight to get claims paid. The payments seen by doctors would not change while their costs would go down.
I could go on with other elements such as union workers getting less Cadillac coverage and receiving greater salaries with which they can buy more goods and services or eliminating the ban on negotiated drug prices which would save the US $40 billion a year without costing the Pharmaceutical companies a cent (US costs would drop by 28% and foreign costs would rise by 14% if everyone paid the same and pharma had the same gross).
But I think you get the idea — failure to address healthcare now will delay reform past the point of no return financially.
These political war games have got to stop — the country is setting itself up for a “last election” such as the ones that elected Hitler or Hamas.
When enough people become disenfranchised, they will follow a demagogue and our noble democratic experiment will be at an end.
Think I am being overdramatic — I bring to your attention two recent polls
1. 50% of those queried said they could not raise $2000 on an emergency basis given 30 days.
2. Voters already favor the Tea Party Movement (i.e. the party of the disenfranchised) over both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Posted by: BobbyG | January 16, 2010, 8:25 am 8:25 am

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