NEWS FLASH: Rep. Mike Capuano has announced publicly that he’s … well … thinking about it. The Boston Sunday Globe has a long article about the possibility that Capuano will run for Governor in 2006. In it, Capuano is quoted as asking himself: "Can I win? Can I raise the money? Do I want the job?"
All excellent questions, although Capuano asks them in a curious order. It seems to us that he should answer the last question first and take it from there – after all, a safe seat in the US Congress is a pretty nice job, and we’d be hard pressed to criticize him for not wanting to give it up. However, we’ve already noted our worries about whether AG Tom Reilly is the best choice to oust His Excellency the Governor in 06, and Capuano has a lot of strengths (as well as some weaknesses, including the fact that he’s largely unknown outside of his Boston-Somerville base). Is there someone else who should be getting a hard look (other than Secretary of State Bill Galvin, who is the ultimate State House insider and seems unlikely to spark a lot of excitement)? What do you think?
I’d love to say it isn’t so- but it is. No one- let me repeat- no one(except Kerry or kennedy who woudn’t even dream of it)can defeat Romney in 2006. Reily is boring as hell, so is capuano. The only one with a shot is Meehan and he probably won’t run. Sadly, here is just not enough against this popular, good looking guy to draw any voters away from backing him that did in 2002- and remember- this is a guy who garnered 50% of the vote. Sorry- but looks like mitt is it for another couple years, anyway.
I’m not so sure. A lot of people were fooled into thinking Romney was a Weld/Cellucci innofensive Northeastern Republican, not a fundamentalist gasbag. Plus, ’02 was before Romney spent the better part of a year stumping for a president that Mass citizens twice rejected and hawking his terrible ghost-written book.I take a small comfort that the Mass voters soundly rejected Mitt’s slate of GOP retreads this November as at least a partial indication of their feelings about the governor. Besides, the Democrats don’t need to peel off that many voters from Romney’s total, they just need to convince the Stein voters to go Dem and convince the people who didn’t vote two years ago that Romney’s no more than a useless hairdo that needs to go.