Western roots
It will feel very much like the homecoming it is when Martha Coakley is sworn in today as the attorney general of Massachusetts in North Adams, the Berkshire County city where she was born and spent her childhood.
From the priest, a former classmate who will offer the invocation, to remarks by her high school history teacher, the 11 a.m. ceremony at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is as much about symbolism as it is about ceremony. "Too many people in Massachusetts think the state ends in Worcester," she said yesterday. "I know better."
Like Governor Deval Patrick before her, Coakley is using her inauguration to reach out to corners of the Commonwealth that rarely, if ever, see a constitutional officer.
Six hundred people are expected to pack the auditorium at MASS MoCA to watch the first woman take the oath as the state's chief law enforcement officer. A reception in the Great Hall of the State House this evening will round out her day.
Before the pageantry, Coakley will have a chance to visit her parents' graves for a private moment and some reflection on the inscription on a plaque her dad gave her when she graduated from Boston University School of Law. "Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman," it reads.
"I am conscious of being the first, but I think it is less of an issue now than when I ran for [Middlesex] district attorney," she said, suggesting that geography could be as influential as gender as she sets her agenda as attorney general.
"I don't think I am bringing something pink to the office, compared to Tom," she said of Thomas F. Reilly, the outgoing attorney general who lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor last year. But Coakley's childhood and college years in Berkshire County -- she graduated from Williams -- have made her more sensitive to issues of concern to the most western part of the state than others might be, she said.
"Obviously, the investigation into the Big Dig is an urgent priority, but it is not the only one. Healthcare and energy issues are high on the agenda. The environment is something I care about, and in this job I can have some impact," she said. "The job is higher profile, but it also has more gray area. As the DA, your single focus is bringing bad people to justice. Being attorney general is like heading six or seven different law firms, the reach is so broad."
From consumer protection to civil rights to oversight of areas as varied as energy and insurance regulation, she anticipates that her transition will last four to six months.
But North Adams Mayor John Barrett III has no intention of passing up the opportunity to do some immediate lobbying while she and the swells are in town today.
Before the ceremony, Barrett plans to walk Patrick outside City Hall to examine the Hadley overpass, a bridge he describes as a daily reminder of the state's neglect. He has been trying for 18 years to wrest an appropriation out of Beacon Hill to replace the falling concrete, now held uncertainly in place by burlap wrapping.
"We are getting very tired of hearing about the Big Dig out here," said Barrett, who was first elected in 1984, making him the longest-serving mayor in Massachusetts. "Fix the Big Dig, but don't forget the other deteriorating roads and bridges."
Barrett hopes, too, that Coakley will focus attention on the exploitation of the elderly by scam artists and disreputable contractors, a problem that disproportionately affects cities with a graying population such as North Adams. Berkshire County has lost 34 percent of residents between the ages of 25 and 34 since 1990, according to a recent study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
"We need to hold onto our young people," he said. "But how great is it seeing one of our own come back as the attorney general?"
Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com. 
