Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Governor Martha Coakley and Republican candidate Charlie Baker continue to accuse each other of failing the state's most vulnerable kids.
The Coakley campaign is lashing out at Baker’s record when he was secretary of health and human services and responsible for the state's child welfare agency, in the early 1990s. Coakley is criticizing Baker’s decision at the time to give back money that had been allocated to the department.
“He was the only one in this race who could have supplied more funding, more opportunities to do the job they needed to do and he didn’t. There was $2 million available he didn't use."
Baker says he’s proud of the work he did to help children. And he offered this explanation for why he returned the money.
“We were hiring social workers during that period of time as quickly as we could find qualified people to take those positions. And at the end of the year we ended with a little bit of an overage.”
The candidates starting attacking each other on this issue last week, when a PAC supporting Baker ran a TV ad tying Coakley to recent problems at the Department of Children and Families.
