NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — October 31, 2014 — Democratic candidate for Massachusetts governor Martha Coakley said Republican candidate Charlie Baker should answer ‘‘legitimate questions’’ about a story that nearly brought him to tears as he told it about a rueful fisherman.
During Tuesday’s debate Baker recalled a meeting with a New Bedford fisherman who regretted pressuring his sons — both of whom were high school football players and had been offered college scholarships — to follow him into the life of a fisherman rather than go to college. Baker told the story in response to a question about the last time he cried.
Baker later acknowledged he met the man during his failed 2010 campaign for governor. And his campaign has since said the fisherman may not have been from New Bedford. Baker insists the story stuck with him in part because he, too, is a father, though he conceded he might have gotten ‘‘a detail or two’’ wrong in his retelling.
Coakley said Baker needs to clarify the story.
‘‘Now we are hearing, as he walks the story back, well maybe it wasn’t New Bedford, maybe they weren’t football players, so we are really left wondering, what this story was about?’’ Coakley said. ‘‘Charlie’s really the only one who can answer that. I think he should answer those questions.’’
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe