The Eye

Coakley has a double-digit lead over her nearest Democratic opponents, at 44 percent to 17 percent for investor and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca , 16 percent for Capuano and and 3 percent for Alan Khazei, co-founder of the national community service program City Year. Twenty percent remain undecided.

The four candidates met in a radio debate Thursday. Pagliuca made the biggest splash by saying he supports a military draft, then promptly backing away from his statement.

In a release, the Democratic candidate and Boston Celtics co-owners said he "misunderstood" a question about reinstating the military draft. "I incorrectly interpreted the question to be asking if I would support a mandatory draft in the event we needed additional troops and my answer was yes," he said. "I now realize that was not the question posed to me, and I want to be clear that I do not support reinstating the military draft at this time."

Pagliuca's draft comments lead the news coverage of the Democratic debate in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

The debate also saw the four candidates continue to spar over health care and how they would have voted on the overhaul bill that passed the House on Saturday. Capuano has gone hard after Coakley for saying she would have considered opposing the House bill because of an anti-abortion tacked onto the final bill.

In a statement released Tuesday, Capuano said he and other pro-choice Democrats "moved the bill forward because it contained the public option provision so important to guaranteeing that real health care reform takes place this year. If Martha Coakley had her way the U.S. Senate wouldn't even be considering expanding health care to cover 36 million more Americans."

Pagliuca, who has been spending millions of his own money to blanket the airwaves with campaign ads, launched a radio ad Wednesday going after both Coakley and Capuano for their stance on the health care bill. In the ad, Pagliuca says the legislation offers a "historic opportunity'' to "provide health care to over 30 million Americans who don't have it, and to help lower spiraling health care costs.'' But, he says, "Two of my opponents for the US Senate are putting this landmark legislation at risk,'' because of their concerns about the anti-abortion provisions.

Capuano, Pagliuca and Khazei have all been pushing for more televised debates before the Dec. 8 primary, hoping to shift the dynamics of the race. Khazei and Pagliuca sent an open letter to the media on Monday offering "to help pay for any reasonable production costs associated with holding the debates and putting them on television."

But Coakley's campaign is resisting, saying she is prepared to participate in just one more debate. All four candidates attended a debate at the John F. Kennedy Library on Oct. 26 that was aired on television in the Boston area. They have also engaged in a series of non-televised forums.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary on Dec. 8 will be a strong favorite to win the Jan. 19 general election, given the state's heavy Democratic lean. State Sen. Scott Brown is expected to win the Republican nomination with little opposition.

The winner of the general election will succeed interim Sen. Paul G. Kirk Jr. , a former Democratic National Committee chairman who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died of cancer in August.

CQ Politics rates the general election contest Safe Democratic.