Last chance
Punches may also be thrown in two televised debates that will kick off the last week of campaigning.
These back-to-back debates, taking place immediately after the holiday weekend, could be crucial. On Tuesday, WCVB will host a one-hour debate, while a consortium including NECN and WGBH will host one the following evening.
If Coakley's lead is solid, those debates should be largely irrelevant — as long as she doesn't screw up. But if there is an opening for a challenger to emerge and make this a competitive two-person battle, it will likely happen those two nights.
That could be the point when voters — who have seen plenty of Capuano and Pagliuca ads — first take notice of Khazei, who was deemed by many analysts to have performed well in the one previous televised debate.
Even so, Khazei could be hard-pressed to take advantage: he had only $500,000 cash on hand as of November 18. Capuano had $1.1 million, and Coakley had $1.9 million — while Pagliuca, with a personal fortune, presumably has as much as he wants at his disposal.
That means voters should be seeing plenty of the candidates' final pitches in the week after Thanksgiving — if they're not already distracted by their Christmas planning.
To read the "Talking Politics" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/talkingpolitics. David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein@thephoenix.com.