The Giraffe Party

When we spoke with Coakley yesterday, we asked her about the giraffe collection that her friend, Double-A, blogged about.  Here’s the story:

When I was chief of the child abuse unit, I found that in dealing with young kids who had to come in to be interviewed, it was always stressful for them and their families.  I started to collect animals and toys that they could play with to get them relaxed before we’d do the interview. 

I like giraffes.  I think no two have the same spot pattern… I said [to the children] “I like giraffes, ‘cause they stick their necks out,” which is what I was asking these little kids to do.  And it usually worked… 

And of course, once people know that you like something, you tend to get it a lot, so I have giraffe jewelry, art giraffes, stuffed giraffes…  But I do appreciate that [particularly] for women, running for office is sticking your neck out.  So I jokingly said, “someday we’ll start the giraffe party.”  

Coakley described her earliest major giraffe moment, diving into her first election for DA: 

I really stuck my neck out.  Because I didn’t have any campaign organization.   I had no money.  I sold my house.  I used some of the proceeds for that.  And it was a tough campaign.  We didn’t know until election day was over whether we had won or not…  But for me, if it’s things you care about, things you want to do, it’s not a hard call…  As Attorney General, and certainly if you’re going to run for elected office, you have to take risks.