When Deval Patrick ran for governor in 2006 and Republicans were accusing him of being soft on crime, he turned to an unlikely ally to bail him out: Martha Coakley, then the Middlesex district attorney and candidate for attorney general.
The two had almost no personal relationship — Coakley had endorsed Patrick’s rival in the Democratic primary — but she appeared in an ad for the political newcomer, defending him as tough on crime and criticizing his Republican foe.
Now, eight years later, Coakley is turning to Patrick for help, hoping the popular two-term governor — widely considered one of the best campaigners the state has seen — can mobilize his grass-roots supporters one last time as she tries to defeat Patrick’s rival from the 2010 governor’s race, Charlie Baker.
In answering her call, Patrick is not only repaying a political debt, but fighting for his own legacy. Coakley is running to extend Patrick’s agenda on education, transportation, and other issues, while Baker — much as he did four years ago — is targeting Patrick’s record as part of his promise of change.
Democrats say if Patrick were ever to run for the White House, it would also help to have a friend in the governor’s office, putting a gloss on his tenure, rather than a former foe probing for management problems and steering the state in a different direction.
In campaign appearances with Coakley, the governor has seemed to tap into hard feelings still lingering from his bitter battle with Baker, when the Republican ripped into Patrick’s record and accused him of handing out welfare benefits for booze, cash, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.
“He is, by all accounts, a fine guy, but I remember, and you ought to, too, that race in 2010,” Patrick said at a Coakley campaign event at a Head Start center in Quincy this week. “Not only was it an uncommonly and unnecessarily nasty race, but he has taken positions now that are diametrically opposed to the positions he took then.”
Democratic Party leaders said the most important role Patrick can play is helping Coakley, who has been criticized as a sometimes lackluster campaigner, energize African-Americans, Latinos, and the vast army of volunteers who propelled the governor to an improbable victory in 2006 and then helped him win reelection.
This week in Great Barrington, Patrick held the first in a series of “Friends of Deval” celebrations to thank his diehard supporters and urge them to join Coakley’s campaign. About 150 people showed up, according to John Walsh, the executive director of Patrick’s political action committee. On Sunday, Patrick plans to attend a “statewide volunteer summit” with Coakley in Worcester.
“There are people who are very loyal to Deval and I think he can motivate them,” said Kate Donaghue, a longtime party activist from Westborough and member of the Democratic National Committee. “Martha is an outstanding leader, but her role has been a little different than Deval’s and, I think, working together, they can inspire people.”
Coakley, however, has to be careful not to appear as though she is running for a third Patrick term, said Mo Cowan, Patrick’s former chief of staff, whom the governor appointed to a brief term in the US Senate. Cowan said Coakley and Baker face a “Deval Patrick problem,” as they try to establish distinct messages and platforms.
“Each faces challenges campaigning to succeed a very popular sitting governor,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Globe. “Charlie has to be careful because he needs Democrats and independents; 2010 taught him that he cannot win trashing the governor’s record. Martha has to both embrace the current administration and explain how and where her administration will differ.”
Patrick and Coakley do not have a deep political or personal bond, but their careers have crossed paths at a few key moments. They also share a top political adviser, Doug Rubin.
Patrick said he first got to know Coakley in 2006 when he asked her to appear in the television ad to rebut his Republican opponent, Kerry Healey, who had launched a controversial attack ad that showed Patrick praising convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer as “eloquent” and “thoughtful.”
Coakley, who had endorsed Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, her former boss, in the primary, agreed to help.
“I’ve spent the last 20 years fighting for victims of crime, so I find Kerry Healey’s attacks on Deval Patrick inaccurate and misleading,” Coakley said in the spot, which ran a month before the election. “For Deval Patrick, crime’s a real problem to be solved. For Kerry Healey? Just another negative ad.”
Patrick said he still appreciates Coakley’s aiding him at such a critical juncture.
“She did a very brave thing for me when we were getting attacked on crime issues in a very distorted media campaign,” he said.
Four years later, when Scott Brown stunned the political world and defeated Coakley in the US Senate race, Patrick said he made a point of standing behind Coakley on stage at the Sheraton Boston Hotel as she delivered her concession speech to a roomful of tearful, shaken Democrats.
“That’s what friends do,” Patrick said.
It remains an open question just how deeply involved and highly visible Patrick will be in Coakley’s campaign for governor.
When Patrick endorsed Warren Tolman for attorney general earlier this month, he waited until four days before the Democratic primary, after momentum had swung behind Tolman’s opponent, Maura Healey. Patrick also announced his endorsement in an e-mail and online video and never campaigned in person with Tolman.
Since Coakley won the Democratic primary on Sept. 9, Patrick has appeared with her at least three times. He spoke at her victory party, at a unity event with the losing candidates, and in Quincy, where he promoted Coakley’s plans to expand prekindergarten programs — an initiative Patrick began but never completed.
Walsh, the head of Patrick’s political action committee, said the governor is “definitely committed to plugging in” to the Coakley campaign, but would not discuss specifics.
Several Democrats said they see they see little risk for Patrick in putting his weight behind Coakley. No matter the result in November, they said, Patrick will remain an in-
demand speaker at party gatherings and on behalf of candidates nationwide, prized for his oratorical skills.
Michael Levenson
can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.