Sunday Journal: Democratic Candidates for Governor of Massachusetts

There are five candidates–three Democrats and two Republicans–running in the gubernatorial race running in the primary on September 9. Each of them was interviewed by CapeCod.com in advance of the primary.

 

DEMOCRATS

 

Martha Coakley

Martha Coakley

Martha Coakley

Here is biographical information on Martha Coakley as provided by the candidate:

Attorney General Martha Coakley lives in Medford with her husband, retired police Deputy Superintendent Thomas F. O’Connor, Jr.

She was born and raised in North Adams. Her father was a World War II and Korean War veteran and a small business owner. Her mother was a homemaker raising five children.

She was part of the first female class to attend Williams College, and received her J.D. from the Boston University School of Law.

She served as a prosecutor before serving as Middlesex District Attorney and now as the Commonwealth’s first female Attorney General.

Martha Coakley:

 

Steve Grossman (center) was among a host of officials at the ribbon cutting for the new Monomoy School in Chatham last month.

Steve Grossman (center) was among a host of officials at the ribbon cutting for the new Monomoy School in Chatham last month.

Steve Grossman

State Treasurer Steve Grossman is a small businessman with more than 35 years of experience running a fourth generation family company and union shop.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, Steve lives in Newton.

His wife, Dr. Barbara Wallace Grossman, is a professor at Tufts University and serves as vice chair of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. They have three sons, David, Ben, and Josh, and five grandchildren.

He served as chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and as national party chair under President Bill Clinton.

He was elected state treasurer in 2010.

 

Steve Grossman:

 

Don Berwick

Don Berwick

Don Berwick

Don Berwick has lived in Massachusetts first as a student, then as a pediatrician, a teacher, and a CEO. Berwick and his wife Ann live in the same Newton house where they raised their four children.

Berwick followed in his father’s footsteps and became a pediatrician, graduating from Harvard Medical School and practicing at both Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard Community Health Plan.

In 1991, with a small seed grant, he founded the non-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Today, IHI employs 150 people in Cambridge and operates on a $40 million annual budget.

During his tenure at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Berwick was a close advisor to the World Health Organization.

In 2010, President Obama asked Berwick to go to Washington to lead the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He took charge of an agency with a budget over $800 billion and led a staff of more than 5,500 people.

Don Berwick:

 

REPUBLICANS

Charlie Baker

Charlie Baker

Charlie Baker

Raised in Needham, Charlie Baker attended public schools and is a graduate of Harvard College. He earned an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Baker and his wife, Lauren, live in Swampscott, and have three children: Charlie, AJ, and Caroline.

Baker is a former Secretary of Administration and Finance under Governors Weld and Cellucci, and former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He has spent the past three years as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners.

As CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Baker led the company out of receivership to become the highest ranked health plan in the country for member satisfaction and clinical effectiveness six years in a row. During his tenure, Harvard Pilgrim was named one of Boston Business Journal’s “Best Places To Work” for seven straight years.

 

Charlie Baker:

 

Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher is owner of Merchant’s Fabrication in Auburn, a metal manufacturing facility.

He was born in 1958 and grew up in Westfield, where he played Little League and Babe Ruth baseball in the summer and Suburban League basketball in winter, then going on to play varsity basketball and baseball. He graduated from Westfield High in 1976 and took a job as a Union member at Old Colony Envelope Company.

He graduated from Hartford State Technical College (now Capital Community College) in 1979 with an A.S. degree in nuclear engineering technology. After a year working at a nuclear power plant in Virginia, he returned to Massachusetts and graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1983 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He spent the next 5 years at Raytheon, then began attending evening graduate classes at WPI, earning an M.S. in manufacturing and an M.B.A.

His final layoff was in 2008, and on the same day that he received his notice, he found a manufacturing business for sale and purchased the business he now owns.

Married to Margaret Mary O’Brien for the past 21 years, the couple has two children and resides in Shrewsbury.

Mark Fisher:



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