In what could perhaps be considered the very first political attack ad of the year and that of the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial race, current Mass. Attorney General Martha Coakley dispatched an email to supporters calling out Republican candidate Charlie Baker for his stance on a minimum wage initiative that passed the state Senate at the end of last year.

Coakley, who made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate back in 2010 after losing to Republican Scott Brown, expressed a need for Massachusetts “to increase the minimum wage now,” according to her email, and that “Charlie Baker doesn’t see it that way. Just this past week, he spoke to a Chamber of Commerce and reiterated his opposition to raising the minimum wage.”

For his part, Baker released a campaign video this morning titled “Time To Be Great” in which he acknowledges the Bay State’s notoriously high “cost of living,” which doesn’t bode well for any anti-minimum wage sentiments.

The only issue is: Coakley has taken Baker’s stance completely out of context.

Coakley referenced a recent speech “to a Chamber of Commerce” where he “reiterated his opposition to raising the minimum wage.” But that isn’t entirely true.

Yes, Baker declined to endorse the Senate-approved measure to increase minimum wage from its current $8 per hour to $11 per hour in a span of three years due to the impact it could have on the likes of small business retailers and restaurants. But he also offered up an alternative solution.

He proposed “special minimum wages for workers who are at training levels and teenagers,” according to Fitchburg’s Sentinel & Enterprise for “teenagers [who] are not primary wage earners and that they often have difficulty finding work.” He also put forth the idea that the commonwealth “piggyback on the federal earned income tax credit which gives about $55 billion back to low-income workers every year.”

Coakley argues that since 1968 the inflation adjusted value of the tipped minimum wage has fallen 58 percent, meaning that those in the restaurant industry and others who receive tips to help supplement their income have actually lost money since their base rate was secured at $2.63 – where it’s stood since 1999.

To check out Baker’s new campaign clip, check out the video below. Beneath that you’ll find the transcribed email sent by Coakley.

Dear Friend,

As I have traveled across the Commonwealth, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many working men and women, some working two or three jobs just to get by. I’ve heard about their families, their hopes and struggles, and the challenges they face to make ends meet and support their families.

These working men and women need and deserve an increase in the minimum wage. While many at the top have come out of the economic downturn just fine, many working families have fallen further behind. This is not fair or right, and we must do something about it. That is why we need to increase the minimum wage now.

Making sure the minimum wage reflects the real costs workers and families are facing day in and day out is a matter of basic fairness.

Unfortunately, Charlie Baker doesn’t see it that way. Just this past week, he spoke to a Chamber of Commerce and reiterated his opposition to raising the minimum wage. He not only said he doesn’t believe we should raise the minimum wage, but that he would actually slash the minimum for some workers.

This is the difference between how Charlie and I would govern—I would stand up for working families and listen to them, he would side with big corporations and leave working families to go it alone.

This isn’t rocket science. We know raising the minimum wage will help working families and our overall economy. Raising the wage to $11 will directly affect 491,000 workers in Massachusetts, and each of those workers will see an average increase of more than $2,500 year. And the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center said that this $1.5 billion in new wages is “money likely to be spent in the local economy.” The MBPC also found that the real value of the minimum wage today is 25% below what it was in 1968. To put it more starkly, Massachusetts’s full-time minimum wage workers are making $5,000 less today than they would have in 1968.

Legislation passed by the Senate would raise the minimum wage starting July 1stincrementally from the current $8 to $11 by 2016 and index it to inflation thereafter. It is now awaiting a vote in the House. Now is the time to pass a minimum wage increase—let’s not hold it up by tying it to other proposals—and let’s give working families the fair break they deserve.

Cordially,