Maura Healey, a candidate for Attorney General of Massachusetts, came to Lowell last evening for the Democratic State Committee meeting at Lowell High School and then for a house party at the home of Nancy and Richard Pitkin. The house party was a great success with a diverse crowd of nearly thirty people able to meet Maura and hear her share her vision for the Attorney General’s office.

Healey has an interesting biography. She was born and raised in North Hampton, NH and spent her teen years waitressing at the Whale’s Tale and the Casino while playing point guard for the Winnacunet High School basketball team. She went on to study government at Harvard where she was co-captain of the women’s basketball team. After graduation she spent two years playing for a team in Salzburg, Austria in the European women’s professional basketball league. Returning from Europe, she attended Northeastern Law School and then spent seven years practicing at the Boston law firm WilmerHale. When Martha Coakley was elected Attorney General, Healey went to work for her, serving at various times as chief of the Civil Rights Division, the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau, and the Business and Labor Division.

In her remarks in Lowell last night, Healey highlighted several of her major accomplishments in the AG’s office including leading the successful Massachusetts challenge to the federal defense of marriage act, convincing Apple to make its technology more usable for those with impaired vision, and holding the big banks and lenders accountable for the abuses that led to the foreclosure crisis. As Attorney General, Healey vowed to use the power of the office to fight to uphold the rights of all residents of the Commonwealth while at the same time assisting the state’s District Attorneys in prosecuting criminals but also in getting at the root causes of criminal behavior. Personally, I got to work with Maura Healey during the foreclosure crisis and can attest that her efforts had a direct impact on lessening the effects of that crisis on the city of Lowell. As bad as it was, it would have been a lot worse without the actions of the attorney general’s office.

To learn more about Maura Healey or to donate to her campaign, visit her website at maurahealey.com. If you’d like to help out with or learn more about the campaign here in Lowell and the neighboring towns, just send me an email at DickHoweJr@gmail.com.