Was Martha Coakley's 2014 loss really her fault?

[tpfkaw]

Yeah, pretty much. She was leading by 10 or so until her various tax-related gaffes.

[tpfkaw]

She had two main gaffes in 2014, both about taxes. The first, in May, was when, during a radio interview, she said she wanted to raise the gas tax, and the host asked her how much the gas tax currently was. Her response was "uhhhh... 10 cents?" (It was 24 cents).

The second, in late October, was during one of the debates when the candidates were asked what they would do to eliminate the state deficit; she said she wanted to "explore ways to have a [unconstitutional] graduated income tax." Thus confirming all the Republican attacks on that subject (that a Democratic governor would use legal chicanery to create a graduated income tax), and showing her campaign (who had been swearing up and down that she was against a graduated income tax) to be lying.

Her debate performances were also considered fairly poor in general, including in the Democratic primary debates (which most of the analysts thought Grossman won).