I’ve decided to vote for Congressman Mike Capuano in this Tuesday’s Democratic primary to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, and briefly, here’s why:
There are four candidates in the race: Capuano, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Bain alum and Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, and City-Year founder Alan Khazei. Survivor Massachusetts Senate:
Pagliuca is the first to go. He lost me when I started seeing his ads during Celtics games a month ago, which suggests he ever had me, which he didn’t. Grainy photos of men in suits handing off cash-filled briefcases, with voiceovers demagoging against Wall Street greed. No thanks.
My opening bid was “I’ll give Khazei every chance to win my vote.” But I’m not the only one with whom he never caught on. In a short special election, it’s hard to make a grassroots campaign work; there’s little time for a movement. I think if he were really special, he could have caught fire. And the Globe did endorse him, which is remarkable. And we do elect Senators for 6 years, so it’s permissible to grow into the job. But from what I’ve heard, I just don’t think the guy has a realistic idea of how to be a Senator. The idea isn’t to be a mini Barack Obama. The idea is to be a mini Ted Kennedy.
The seat doesn’t belong to Ted Kennedy, but the fact that it’s Kennedy we’re replacing reminds us of some of the criteria for being a good Senator, and I think Capuano meets more of them than does Coakley.
He understands the legislative process better than she does – she could learn, but he seems more suited to being a legislator than she is. He seems to be an effective hybrid; fiercely principled and passionate on the one hand, but a deal-maker on the other. To the extent that he’s put the Kennedy comparison at the center of his campaign, that’s the comparison he’s making, and I buy it. Coakley, on the other hand, seems well-suited to being an AG; she’s clearly fierce, smart, and confident. But I suspect she’d be frustrated by the legislative process, and by the inanity of what is often the world’s most inane building.
And then there’s just the matter of their politics: Coakley is a good Democrat; Capuano is a Liberal. His leadership on Darfur is meaningful to me. He has won me over by talking about unemployment as a true crisis that must, as a moral matter, be tackled my spending public money on underfunded jobs programs. When he talks about 10% unemployment, you get the sense of a Congressman who knows what he’s doing there. And though I would hope our next Senator would vote for the health care reform bill in whatever form it is likely to take, and I trust that he will, from the north or south side of the Capitol, he has convinced me that now is the time to stand up against the Stupak amendment. This, of course, is a position that Capuano and Coakley share. A position they don’t share is the one she expressed by leading the campaign against Massachusetts’ recent successful ballot measure to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana. Even if those were Massachusetts’ values, which they aren’t, they wouldn’t be our priorities.
So that’s my vote: Because I think he’s to her left, but probably more importantly because I think he’ll simply be more effective at making American laws better than they otherwise would be, which ultimately is the job of a Senator, and we’ll leave the hope and whatnot to the President, I’m voting for Mike Capuano.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Thank you for your support - it's much appreciated! Check it out, we linked to your blog: http://www.mikecapuano.com/pages/publications-and-bloggers
Thank you for this blog entry. It was informative. Your argument was convincing enough for me to vote for him...It is just difficult to think of a person and a legislator who could really be the Ted Kennedy of our generation. Maybe as you rightly pointed out we should not compare and contrast the candidates to him and instead take into consideration some of the criteria of a legislator who could continue Kennedy's legacy. Thanks for your piece and looking forward to reading your future pieces.
I actually think Mike Capuano has done a good job as congressman for the 8th District. But your arguments has a lot of holes in it. First of all, you sound like in your heart you want to be a Khazei supporter, and you don't have the courage of your true convictions. Just because the guy is running last in the race is no reason not to vote for him.
Let's remember something important, Mike Capuano has only been a progressive since he was elected to represent arguably the most progressive congressional district in America. Before that, as Mayor and Alderman in Somerville, he was more or less the leader of the Somerville old guard and vigilantly opposed by the burgeoning progressive community there. Sounds like you've only been in the area for a few years if you don't remember what Mike was doing before he became Congressman. I'm not too sure what kind of Senator he will be. You mentioned his legislative experience. Do I have to remind you that it's the current Congress that got us into the mess we're in right now. The whole lot of them are in the tank, Republicans and Democrats alike. I'd like to see somebody in there who supports term limits and real campaign finance reform. Mike's been up there awhile. He hasn't exactly led the charge on those items. He's one of the boys just like everybody else. I, for one, would like to see somebody like an Alan Khazei, a real outsider, interested in reform. And we're probably not going to get that this time. But let's not pretend there is any substantive differences between these candidates on the issues. They are all basically progressive thinkers. Mike is more of a traditional Democrat, which makes him well suited to the House, but I'm not sure he has the gravitas to pull off US Senator. I think any of the other three candidates would figure out the job and long term be better Senators. But if we want real change, I think Khazei and Pagliuca are the two who offer the best chance of that.
Pagliuca and Khazei have said they won't take PAC money and I think, even if that is largely symbolic, and even though this is convenient for Steve, since he doesn't really need it, campaign finance reform is a key issue for me. We can't change Congress without it, and this problem of lobbyists controlling our legislative process is the thing that is the most wrong with our country right now -- even moreso than the economic crisis. I think it's pretty clear that lobbyists' influence over Congress is how we got into this mess in the first place. Mike Capuano has cast a lot good liberal votes and performed well for Massachusetts as a congressman, but he's been in that Congress for 10 years now. What has he done about the grip which lobbyists have on our government?
Pickle, you convinced me to vote Khazei. Capuano is old-style parochial politics. I'm off to the polls.
If only, my friends. If only.
Here's hoping all will be well despite the massive MA fail.
Post a Comment