A Day in the Life Of Martha Coakly:Two Lawsuits,Two Advertising Disasters

Depending on which poll you believe Republican Scott Brown is ahead by anywhere for 3-15 percentage points heading into the last two days of campaigning before election day. However no matter which poll one looks at, Scott Brown is moving up and Martha Coakley is moving down.

During the past week Coakley had to pull two TV ads, one because she spelled the name of her own state Massachusetts incorrectly, in the other she insensitively used a picture of the twin towers as a background in an attack ad. But today was a "twofer." Two of the Democratic Candidate's Campaign Pamphlets drew lawsuits. One by United Parcel Service (UPS), the other by Scott Brown.

Shipping giant UPS isn’t amused by a Democratic Party campaign pamphlet attacking Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown that plays off the company’s slogan “What can Brown do for you?”

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, known for its ubiquitous brown trucks, demanded yesterday that the Massachusetts Democratic Party, which is listed as paying for the pamphlet, stop distributing it.

The mailer asks “What can Brown do to you?” It shows Scott Brown dressed up as a UPS driver and says, “He can reward corporations that ship your job overseas just like George W. Bush.”

It’s unclear how many of the mailers had gone out.

“Our legal team sent the Massachusetts Democratic Party an e-mail today,” company spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said yesterday. “As part of ongoing UPS brand protection, we asked that no further copies be distributed.”

As of late yesterday, Rosenberg said UPS had not received a response. The Massachusetts Democratic Party did not respond to a message left at its headquarters in Boston by the Herald.

As Attorney General for the Bay State, Coakely should have known better, her ad team should have known better also.

Also today, Republican Scott Brown announced that he is taking the unusual step of filing criminal complaint against Massachusetts Democratic Party over a different Coakley flier. Brown says the flier violates a Massachusetts law prohibiting false statements against a political candidate.

The cover of a four-page mailer sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party says, "1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away."

Brown is a state senator, and in 2005 he filed an amendment that would have allowed workers at religious hospitals or with firmly held religious beliefs to avoid giving emergency contraception to rape victims. The amendment failed, and Brown voted in favor of a bill allowing the contraception. He also voted to override a veto issued by his fellow Republican, then-Gov. Mitt Romney.

A section of the Massachusetts General Laws prohibits false statements against political candidates that are designed or tend "to aid or to injure or defeat such candidate," with a penalty of to $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

Brown campaign legal counsel Daniel Winslow said, "People can shade things and spin things, but it has to have some kernel of truth."

Winslow called on the Democratic Party and the Coakley campaign to disavow the mailer's claim. The Brown campaign plans to wait until Tuesday, the next business day, before seeking a legal remedy, he said.

Coakley's campaign has become the gang that can't shoot straight. Her lack of attention to details, bad judgment, and aversion to meeting the "people" and hearing their issues, may make her the perfect Democrat but it doesn't make her a good Senator. Here's hoping the the Bay State's voters understand that.