Coakley wins?

Of all the constitutional officers, the statewide races, none may be as vulnerable to re-election as Attorney General Martha Coakley.  She's a national punchline.  SNL said that "she couldn't beat Dick Cheney for Mayor of Berkeley," and that she "stunk up the joint" (Jan. 23 episode).

But nobody is running against her.

The Outraged Liberal notes that this is a dog that's not barking this weekend concerning the GOP convention: the Republicans failed to field a candidate against the most vulnerable office in the Commonwealth.  And it would be the perfect office to have a minority party member win, because the Attorney General should at least partly be antagonistic towards the state government.  That's because the AG investigates the rest of the government, as well as defend them.

Globe blogger Garrett Quinn also wonders why nobody is running against Coakley.  Quinn argues that the fault is the GOP's for not having a deep bench:

"Electable statewide candidates don't just appear out of thin air. They're groomed at the municipal and, later, state legislative levels. Scott Brown is a perfect example of how a candidate worked his way up from elected municipal official to elected legislator to a statewide office."

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