Will Coakley dominate among female voters?
Coakley’s election strategy from the beginning was to rally women to her side. She quickly landed the endorsement of EMILY’s List and has been making policy pronouncements designed to win over women, railing against the House-passed health care bill because it limits coverage for women seeking abortions and airing a slew of ads featuring women supporting her candidacy. But her leading opponent, Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), has an ace up his sleeve: the support of the most powerful woman in Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). If Capuano runs better than expected among female voters, cutting into Coakley’s female base, that would bode well for his prospects. Strong Democratic turnout also would bode well for Coakley because it would suggest that she’s effectively broadened the primary electorate to include women who haven’t been part of the male-dominated insider class that has long ruled state politics. Strikingly, Massachusetts has never elected a female governor or senator —
