The positions of the candidates for governor on the issues of taxes and the economy, gambling, education, healthcare, the environment, public safety, and gay marriage.
Issues GLOBE EDITORIALS: Mass. Matters
US Senate Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, 74, has served 44 years in the US Senate and has championed minimum wage and healthcare legislation. Republican challenger Kenneth G. Chase, 45, runs a language school and has made stricter immigration controls a focus of his run to unseat Kennedy.
Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley yesterday advanced in her bid to replace Thomas F. Reilly as the state's attorney general. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, and will now face Republican Lawrence Frisoli, a Cambridge lawyer and one-term city councilor.
The Massachusetts Republican Party's statewide ticket for 2006 is shaping up to be the weakest in memory, a development that would undercut Governor Mitt Romney's much-touted effort to revitalize the party and could weaken its bid to keep control of the governor's office.
There's still more than a year to go before the state Democratic Party nominates its candidate for attorney general, but as far as party officials can determine, the race is already wrapped up, and the nominee is Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley.
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