Mass AG, Senate hopeful keeps robust press unit

STEVE LeBLANC Comments 0
Published: October 17, 2009

BOSTON (AP) — When a Newton butcher shop was suspected of flouting the state's Kosher Food Law, Attorney General Martha Coakley's office swooped in to investigate.

Prosecutors alleged that the Gordon and Alperin Butcher Shop posted signs in Hebrew advertising "Kosher Meat" when the shop was no longer certified as kosher. The shop, which previously had been certified, denied violating the law but agreed to a $1,000 fine.

Case closed — except for the press release fired off to media outlets touting "Attorney General Martha Coakley's Office Reaches Agreement with Newton Butcher for Kosher Law Violations."

Coakley has aggressively used her taxpayer-funded press operation to update residents on her achievements since she was first elected to the state's top crime-fighting office in 2006. She's continued the trend as she runs for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy.

In the past 13 months, the office has issued nearly 500 press releases — better than one a day — on cases large and small, from deceptive dentists and health club frauds to battling proposed multimillion electricity rate hikes.

The press office has also documented Coakley's efforts on a range of other issues, including defending gay marriage, fighting global warming and battling foreclosures — issues that are also important to key segments of the voting public.

Coakley says she's simply trying to be accountable.

"My job is to make sure that the public is well informed on what we are doing," Coakley said. "I think it's fair to say that in a new administration as we stepped up our activities and our work, we brought more cases, we got more results."

The volume and diversity of the press releases pumped out of Coakley's office have also had the benefit of keeping her name in front of the public's eyes before and during the Senate campaign.

Coakley said "there is no relationship whatsoever" between her press operation as attorney general and her Senate campaign.

Coakley's press office is nothing if not prolific.

The 482 press releases posted on her office Web site since October of 2008 are far more than the 284 releases posted by her New York counterpart, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, on his Web site during the same time.

Coakley has six people in her press office when fully staffed, although two are currently out on maternity leave. By comparison, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has four.

There's nothing unusual about elected officials maintaining a robust press operation, which can also come in handy when election time rolls around, according to Paul Watanabe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

"There's no question that these communications, either through the press or directly with residents, have many purposes and of course one of them is to tout one's achievements," Watanabe said.

The press always has the option of just ignoring them, Watanabe said.

"I can't fault Martha Coakley and her office for preparing a large number of press releases," he added.

Some of Coakley's investigations and press releases have left others scratching their heads.

Leonard Davidson, the attorney representing the Gordon and Alperin butcher shop said he found it unusual that a dispute over kosher food regulations would rise to the level of an investigation by the Attorney General's office.

He said the meat sold by the shop was always kosher. The dispute was about the sign and whether the definition of kosher required direct supervision by a rabbi. He said the shop will again begin supervision.

"I find this to be a non-story," he said. "The state is getting involved in something that is determining a religious issue."

But Rabbi Rachmiel Liberman of Congregation Lubavitch in Brookline said he was pleased Coakley's office took the time to launch the investigation. Liberman said he helped write the law 19 years ago, but said this was the first time that he had heard of an attorney general leveling a fine.

"It's not a religious issue at all, it's a consumer protection issue," Liberman said. "The public has a right to get what they expect."