Biographical details on Attorney General candidate Martha Coakley

NAME: Martha M. Coakley

AGE: 53, Born July 14, 1953, in Lee, Mass.

CAREER: Became an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County in 1986; was elected as Middlesex district attorney in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. Worked at private law firms Parker Coulter Daley & White and Goodwin Procter.

EDUCATION: B.A. from Williams College, 1975; J.D. from Boston University Law School, 1979.

FAMILY: Married to former Cambridge Police Deputy Superintendent Thomas F. O'Connor Jr.

QUOTE: "I think sometimes the government sits back and says, 'We can't do that.' I think you have to be more creative and look outside the box in a state where our agrarian and industrial history is behind us."