Maura Healey, a Charlestown resident, is gathering significant momentum as she pursues the Democratic nomination for attorney general.
A feature story in Friday’s Boston Globe reported that Healey held a two-point lead in a poll about the race. Her strong showing came on Sunday morning during a candidates’ debate with Warren Tolman on Channel 5’s “On The Record.” Following this visibility, Healey drew a substantial crowd to a Chelsea reception held Monday night.
Throughout her campaign, Healey has emphasized her tenure as assistant attorney general and division chief under Attorney General Martha Coakley from 2007 to 2013, when she launched her candidacy. Her accomplishments in that office have become central to her message to voters.
Her background includes notable academic and athletic achievements. A recipient of the New Hampshire High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, Healey captained Harvard’s women’s basketball team as point guard and graduated in 1992 with a degree in Government. She spent two years playing professional basketball in Austria before enrolling at Northeastern University School of Law.
Healey clerked for the Honorable Justice David Mazzone in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts and practiced as a litigator at the Hale and Dorr law firm. She also worked as a special assistant district attorney for Middlesex County before her public interest career took shape.
“My heart was in public interest law so I left Hale and Dorr to become chief of the civil rights division in the attorney general’s office in 2007,” Healey explained in an interview this week. “I ended up overseeing about half of the office.”
During her attorney general’s office tenure, she achieved a landmark victory: “fblikebutton_button”
Successfully suing the Federal government, Healey won the first lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). “It was the first case in the country to strike down that law – it went all the way to the Supreme Court,” she noted.
Her record encompasses fighting foreclosures to keep families in their homes, advancing women’s access to health care, establishing anti-bullying laws, and protecting workers, consumers, and accessibility for physically challenged individuals.
“My fights and my cases and my work – these were all cases and fights on behalf of people. That’s what it means to be attorney general. That’s what it means to lead in the attorney general’s office. You take on big issues and you fight for people most often in court to try to protect people. I think the job of the attorney general is to be the lawyer for the people, not for Beacon Hill,” Healey stated.
Healey reports strong campaign momentum and has garnered endorsements from numerous groups, unions, and elected officials. However, she attributes her foundation to grassroots support. “My support is from people who want someone in the office who has experience and is ready to lead on Day 1,” she said.
With the Sept. 9 election approaching, Healey characterizes her support as steadily growing through the campaign’s final two weeks. “I am really excited by this overwhelming show of support and this grassroots movement,” Healey expressed. “This has been a campaign that’s just continued to build in energy and in excitement over the last few week and I’m really excited about where we’re at in this race. I love being out there with the people and I love campaigning.”