Maura Healey spoke with voters at Mad Jack's Barbecue on North Street Friday afternoon.
Maura Healey spent Friday meeting voters in Pittsfield.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Maura Healey has always been the underdog.
She was the underdog as "5-foot-4 scrappy point guard" in her former professional basketball career and she was the underdog when she sued, and won, the federal government.
"I was the one crazy enough to propose that we sue the federal government many years ago over DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act]. At the time, people told me 'don't do it. It is too much and you are going to lose.' But we did it," Healey said on Friday during a meet and greet at Mad Jack's Barbecue.
"We did it for 20,000 married couples in this state who are gay and were told by the federal government that your not really married."
Now she is the underdog in a race for the democratic nomination for attorney general against a well-known former lawmaker, political pundit and former gubernatorial candidate, Warren Tolman.
Healey is boasting of her experience not only as being the underdog but being in the attorney general's office. After being a prosecutor in a Boston-based law firm, Healey joined the attorney general's office in 2007 and most recently oversaw about half of the office before running for office.
There, she brought the nation's first civil rights lawsuit against a predatory lender and helped write the buffer zone law for women to access abortion clinics, as well her work on the DOMA lawsuit. Now, with Attorney General Martha Coakley running for the governor's office, Healey wants to run the entire attorney general's office.
"Nine months ago, I've never run for office. I never asked for a vote. I never raised a dime. I had no idea what a campaign actually entails. But, here we are," Healey said of the campaign.
She first needs to win the Democratic nomination against Warren Tolman, who boasts a long career in the public eye as a former Legislator. After months of getting her name and story to the Democratic delegates, Healey came "within a hair of winning" the convention.
"We managed to come within a hair of winning that convention. That is really remarkable. We've also been up in all of the polling, internal, external and elsewhere, which is amazing when you think about us as an unknown nine months ago," she said.
"I feel terrific about where we are at and where we've come from. We are where we are because this is a grassroots campaign. This has been able being out and having a chance to connect with people at places like this or in people's living room."
One of the people who hadn't known Healey prior to the campaign was state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, who organized the meeting and greet.
"She impressed me so much. And one of the things that made a big impression on me, and I'm sure you all understand why this will resonate with me, is that she is not afraid to take on the establishment," Farley-Bouvier said.
"Clearly, nine months ago the establishment didn't look twice at her. Then they started to get to know her more and as more people started to learn her story and heard from her herself, and how she is able to learn issues quickly, to respond with grace and intelligence and with solutions to problems, she's shaking the ground a little bit. People are getting a little bit nervous."
Now, Farley-Bouvier is "wholeheartedly" supporting Healey. As attorney general, Healey says she will be focused on consumer protection by going after "new forms" of predatory lending and predatory for-profit schools, increase affordable house, illegal gun and drug trafficking, protecting women's reproductive rights, and "be a leader" in criminal justice reform.
"I want to take on environmental issues. Months ago I started hearing about the pipeline issue. As attorney general, I will be really focused on this. I spoke out about this and I spoke about this for a reason - there has been a lack of transparency and information. It is simply not right to march onto people's property and tell them they are going to survey that land and ultimately take it over for something we know little about," she said.
"We haven't studied the need or what else is available. As attorney general, I want to fight for transparency and accountability in that process. And that may mean taking on the federal government. And I've done that before."
With such a docket of issues she wants the state to tackle from the attorney general's office, she said "you need somebody with experience and you need somebody with energy."
"I have the experience and I'll be ready to go on day 1," Healey said.
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The cities of Pittsfield and North Adams will hold municipal elections for mayor, city council and school committee in 2015
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