Grossman Gets Helping Hand From Mom in New Campaign Ad

This isn't the first time candidate Steve Grossman's mother has played a role in the race for Massachusetts governor

A super PAC supporting Democratic candidate for governor Steve Grossman is using a new television ad to tout the endorsement of a key backer - Grossman's 92-year-old mother.

In the 30-second ad, Shirley Grossman calls her son the best Democrat in the race.

"I should know," she says, "I've voted that way since FDR."

She also says he worked with former President Bill Clinton to fight poverty and as state treasurer invested a billion dollars to help small businesses. She also suggests that he smile more.

The ad is paid for by the Mass Forward Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, which is supporting Grossman's candidacy. Shirley Grossman is one of the PAC's biggest donors, having contributed $100,000.

Under campaign law, Grossman is not allowed to coordinate with the super PAC.

An earlier ad by the same group had attacked fellow Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for her opposition to Gov. Deval Patrick's proposal to limit individuals to one gun purchase per month. Coakley has said the one-gun-a-month limit isn't necessary and the state should instead focus on illegal guns and keeping firearms away from mentally unstable people.

Another candidate in the Democratic primary for governor, Don Berwick, also began airing a new television ad Tuesday.

His ad casts two children in the roles of Grossman and Coakley. It shows the two children "playing politics" by dressing up as the two candidates and bickering in a playground.

"Leadership isn't trading insults," Berwick says in the 30-second ad. "It's delivering results."

The new ads come as the primary race heads into the final stretch with polls showing Coakley ahead.

She is continuing to run an ad that focuses on her work as attorney general and what she says is her record of advocating for victims of violence, particularly women and children, and taking on big financial institutions during the state's foreclosure crisis. The ad also counts "the political insiders, the big-money super PACs, the old boys' club" among Coakley's foes.

There's also a Republican primary contest for governor pitting Charlie Baker, the former Harvard Pilgrim CEO and a Weld and Cellucci administration official, against tea party-affiliated businessman Mark Fisher.

A super PAC supporting Baker has looked past the primary with an ad targeting Coakley.

The 30-second spot faults Coakley for underestimating the state's gas tax during a television appearance while supporting last year's decision to increase the tax by 3 cents to 24 cents a gallon.

Coakley also opposes a ballot question which would repeal a law automatically linking future increases in the tax to inflation.

The ad is being paid for by the Commonwealth Future Political Action Committee, which is funded largely by the Republican Governors Association.

The primary is next Tuesday. 

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