Earlier in the morning she had spoken of starting a sexual assault unit so that victims of those crimes could receive the special understanding that they need.  And she described defending abused children

It’s about case-by-case how we make the system work, and how we make it fair for people.

In an afternoon interview, she described how the people-connection skill she has developed as DA and AG will help her be an effective senator, because in Washington,

you have to look at the big picture, you have to vote on legislation, you have to look at policy, but you also have to care about people back in your commonwealth who are losing their homes, losing their jobs, or who are worried about doing that.

As she’d said earlier,

That’s what Senator Ted Kennedy was so terrific about… understanding every single constituent in Massachusetts who would be dependent upon him for cutting through the red tape of for making government be fair.

Senate President Therese Murray said

 As a U.S. Senator, with the torch of Edward Kennedy lit behind her, she will carry on that tradition of righteousness and carve out a new path of representation and achievement for which we can all be proud.

Martha Coakley is truly a shining example of an advocate that combines heart and head with the ability to fight for what is right. Having followed her career for years I am incredibly excited by the possibility of having the most qualified candidate, who, as a bonus, happens to be our first woman, represent us in the United States Senate.

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.

I owe Martha much. She taught me how to make the best roast turkey ever (rub under and over the skin with olive oil and stud with many many cloves of garlic). As a Jewish girl from the New York suburbs, I needed Martha to teach me what a hair shirt is; freshman year she had me believing that she wore one through Lent. (Another mutual lifelong friend, who met Martha in an interstate high school debate competition, tells of being received strangely by a number of Martha’s high school classmates: Martha had them believing that the friend was entering the convent.)

Whether we would meet in the Berkshires (usually staying at the Wagon Wheel in Lenox, where our annual summer picture was taken next to Trigger, our name for the rather weather-beaten horse statue in front) or in the Boston area, where no visit was complete without Sunday breakfast at Linda Mae’s, it felt as though little time had elapsed since our last visit together.

Being friends for more than 38 years means a lot of gifts have passed between us. (This is not a matter for the Election Commission!) I think that my (and Martha’s) favorite gifts to her have been:

• the rather scruffy rubber chicken that, like Martha and me, was proclaiming itself “still a spring chicken”
• the Eleanor Roosevelt finger puppet, to remind her of one of her role models, and
• any number of representations of giraffes, to add to her vast collection. I particularly like the child’s watch with a giraffe on the face and the band, which Martha told me she has worn as Middlesex DA and as AG when children come to visit her, “though not when [she] was negotiating with insurance companies about the Big Dig.” Why the giraffe collection? Because giraffes stick their necks out, a lesson she always imparts to those visiting kids and emulates daily in a life dedicated to public service.

She talks about her role models growing up, majoring in “the history of ideas” in college, trying her first cases, being a prosecutor, what role passion plays in her work, how she deals with obstacles in her path, and more.

Listen to what she says when Candy asks her what female lawyers bring to the table different than men in the courtroom. Here’s an excerpt:

…why we look to have women and diverse voices at the table, when electing officials, when we have judges, because sometimes you don’t see everything when it isn’t in your experience, law is about logic but it is also about people’s experiences.

Here is another good one:

Candy: At the end of the day Martha, what matters most to you?

Martha: Doing a good job and doing it with integrity.

Only 26 minutes and well worth it. Very, very interesting stuff!

Ya’ gotta have a listen!

However, as MA Congresswomen Niki Tsongas reminds us:

“…but a woman can’t win if a woman doesn’t run.”

Martha has come out strong in her first week and a half.  Let’s keep the momentum going and help her beat the odds, shattering that MA Senate glass ceiling once and for all!

“Right from the get-go it was clear that the Woodward case was going to be an extremely high-profile case, an extremely important case for the Middlesex County district attorney’s office,” said David Frank of Lawyers Weekly. “So the fact that Martha Coakley was selected for that case, along with Gerry Leone, is certainly evidence of the fact that she was considered a very bright, important part of that office.”

…The following year, Coakley was elected Middlesex district attorney…

Coakley has also distinguished herself as a prosecutor of clergy who allegedly abused children. In 2002, she was the first DA in the state to bring abuse-related criminal charges against a priest…

“We hope that it serves as a message — and an important message — about the importance of bringing to light as soon as possible incidents of sexual or physical child abuse,” Coakley said.