Top Aide Announces Run For Mass. Attorney General

BOSTON (AP) — A former top deputy for state Attorney General Martha Coakley on Monday became the first person to formally announce a run for the job.

Democrat Maura Healey, 42, who resigned from the office last week to run her campaign, said she wants to carry on the office's legacy.

"I'm confident my experience, passion and vision for the office make me the best candidate to ensure the attorney general's office continues to make a positive difference in the lives of Massachusetts residents," Healey said in a statement.

Coakley, a Democrat, has announced that she will run for governor rather than seek re-election as attorney general next year.

Healey led the office's business and labor as well as public protection and advocacy sectors, and was a key player in the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples.

She oversaw the areas of consumer protection, fair labor, ratepayer advocacy, environmental protection, health care, insurance and financial services, civil rights, antitrust, Medicaid fraud, not-for-profit organizations and charities, and business, technology and economic development.

Healey, who touted her working class roots in her announcement, is a former captain of the Harvard University women's basketball team who played two years of professional basketball in Austria before returning to the U.S. to earn a law degree from Northeastern University.

She worked in the private sector and as a prosecutor in the Middlesex district attorney's office before joining the attorney general.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.