Honest Mistakes? Yeah, Right.

Everyone who believes that Martha Coakley’s failure to accurately report her financial assets was an “honest mistake,” please raise his or her hand.

Didn’t think so.

Attorney General Martha Coakley acknowledged yesterday she overlooked more than $200,000 in savings when she mistakenly claimed to have zero personal assets in a financial disclosure required of candidates for U.S. Senate.

Coakley’s filing with the Senate Committee on Ethics will be corrected to include overlooked accounts, including a savings account in her husband’s name with more than $200,000 and a personal IRA containing roughly $12,000, said campaign spokesman Corey Welford.

“They were honest mistakes,” he said.

The disclosure that Coakley and her husband have nothing in the bank initially raised eyebrows yesterday. Coakley earns $135,179 a year, and her husband, Thomas F. O’Connor, a retired Cambridge police deputy, gets an undisclosed pension.

I won’t believe for one second that someone earning $135,000 a year can simply “overlook” $200,000. If you were Stephen Pagliuca, whose assets are worth somewhere between $260 million and $765 million, I could more easily believe “overlooking” a couple hundred grand–but Martha Coakley? I don’t think so.

Nice try, Ms. Attorney General. What are you going to try to fool us with next time?

What The Polls Are Saying

Deval Patrick is tanking. Anyone surprised?

A majority of Bay State voters say Gov. Deval Patrick has mishandled the state’s economy, according to a poll released this morning.

The Suffolk University/7 News survey of 600 registered voters found that while 37 percent approve of the governor’s management of the local economy, 55 percent disapprove. Of that number, 29 percent strongly disapprove.

“It’s one of many data points that show the majority of voters are unhappy with the governor,” said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center, who conducted the poll from Nov. 4-8. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Oddly enough, Patrick leads the three-way contest against Tim Cahill and Christy Mihos, according to the Suffolk University/7 News survey.

Gov. Patrick’s negative marks have inched up to 47 percent since September, when they stood at 45 percent. Nevertheless, he remains predominant (36 percent) in a contest with state Treasurer Tim Cahill (26 percent), running as an Independent, and Republican businessman Christy Mihos (20 percent).

And still interesting to note that Christy Mihos still leads the way in the race for the Republican Primary.

Republican primary voters give Mihos the edge (33 percent) over Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charlie Baker (30 percent) in a GOP primary. Baker led Mihos among registered Republicans (33 percent to 28 percent) but Mihos, a former Independent candidate for Governor in 2006, outpolled Baker among Republican-leaning Independents (39 percent to 25 percent).

A general election scenario with Baker in the mix ticks Patrick up to 38 percent; Cahill remains at 26 percent; and Baker gets just 15 percent.

Doesn’t look like Charlie Baker is making much progress if he wants to get the Republican nod.

And what about the Senate special election?

On the race to replace Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat, 56 percent of voters are undecided over which candidate offers the best economic policies.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, topped the six-person race with 13 percent, followed by 11 percent for Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, 10 percent for Celtics [team stats] co-owner and Democrat Stephen Pagliuca and 9 percent for Congressman Michael Capuano (D-Somerville). Democrat and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei and Republican Jack E. Robinson were at zero percent.

More data on the poll from Suffolk University…

On the Democratic side of the Senate race, 44 percent chose Coakley, followed by 17 percent for Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, 16 percent for U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, and 3 percent for City Year founder Alan Khazei. Twenty percent were undecided.

“Steve Pagliuca scored the biggest improvement since September,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “He traveled from zero to second place by flooding the air waves with TV ads. However, he still has not secured the most aware Democratic voters who are choosing Coakley and Capuano before him.”

On the Republican side, state Sen. Scott Brown (45 percent) led Jack E. Robinson (7 percent) with 47 percent undecided.

In General Election head-to-head matchups between the Democratic contenders and the GOP’s Brown, only Khazei fell short, with 33 percent of voters choosing Brown and 30 percent Khazei.

Still of lot of indecisiveness going on here. There’s still some time left before going to vote, and a lot can change.

Election Day 2009

In case you haven’t heard, today is Election Day. While not a presidential election year, there are still a lot of very important elections in many municipalities that can make a big difference. 30 cities in the Commonwealth have mayoral elections, including Boston, which is also electing city councilors today. Is Mayor Tom Menino going to hold on for yet another term, or will Michael Flaherty overcome the power of incumbency?

It will be an exciting day…don’t underestimate the importance of the smaller local elections.

Scott Brown: “Let’s Get To Work!”

Scott Brown just posted on Facebook, “I’m about to make my speech announcing my candidacy for U.S. Senate, let’s get to work!”

Congratulations to Scott Brown on his candidacy for United States Senator!

Scott Brown Likely To Announce Senate Run Today

The official announcement is expected around 2:00pm today at the Omni Parker House, but it seems very likely that State Senator Scott Brown will be entering the race for Senator.

Republican State Senator Scott Brown has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. today to announce whether he will run for the US Senate, a day after former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card decided not to seek the seat.

Brown, a Wrentham lawyer who has served in the Legislature for a decade, had deferred to Card, a key figure in the administration of former President George W. Bush, saying he would not run against him.

But last night, Card said in a statement that a political campaign would not be “in the best interest of my family” and threw his support behind Brown.

“In these critical times, I know that Massachusetts would be well served to have Senator Scott Brown as the Commonwealth’s next United States Senator. He has my full support,” card said in a statement.

If Brown enters the race, he would become the presumptive front-runner in the Republican primary. Others expressing interest in the race so far include Canton Selectman Bob Burr and frequent candidate Jack E. Robinson. Former US Attorney Michael Sullivan has been mentioned as a potential candidate.

He would face an uphill battle against the Democratic nominee, however. The seat was held for 47 years by Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate. The state has not elected a Republican senator since Edward Brooke’s election in 1972.