Frank Phillips of the Boston Globe reports today that Alan Khazei, the cofounder of the widely admired City Year program in Boston that served as a model for community service programs, is seriously pondering jumping into the U.S. Senate special election to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
I don’t claim to know Khazei or his policy positions very well, but I am sufficiently familiar with the City Year program in Boston and nationally to be impressed with Khazei’s work on enacted national community service legislation. I can assert confidently, if he were to enter the Senate race, Khazei would be a bold, reformist, and progressive voice in a Democratic primary field, which currently lacks a candidate fitting that tripartite political description. Moreover, Khazei would enter the race for the U.S. Senate seat without any of the burdensome political baggage of the current front runner, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Great to see that someone progressive with a non-traditional track-record is getting in. I saw Khazei on The Colbert Show and he seemed smart.
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p>Maybe his entry will inspire more non-politicos (Theo Epstein? Sheriff Cabral? etc, etc?)
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p>I have a few issues with this quote. Number one how does this field lack those candidates. Capuano and Coakley are clearly left of center on all the issues. Coakley is bold because she refused to back down when Joe flirted with the race. Capuano gave a bold performance at the Labor Day breakfast. Both support campaign finance reform and other extensive “process” based reforms so they aren’t just liberals committed to business as usual. Capuano even voted against farm subsidies showing his reformist credentials in my view taking on sacred cows within his own party that we should no longer be propping up. I don’t see how being an incumbent makes one any less of a progressive or a reformist if they used their offices as vehicles to fight for progressive reform. Are you arguing Coakley or Capuano haven’t boldly fought for progressive reforms?
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p>Secondly simply by asserting Khazei is “bold, progressive and reformist” doesn’t make it true. Aside from running a great public service program how else has he boldly fought for progressive reform? What are his stances on the issues? Where is his record of walking the walk and talking the talk on these issues?
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p>Sorry but I think it takes a lot more courage to stand by a ten year voting record that demonstrates significant political courage in articulating progressive positions then to sit on the sidelines and suddenly show up.
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p>And no I am biased against outsiders since if the examples of Deval Patrick and Mitt Romney show they don’t know what their doing when they walk in the doorway. I want an experienced legislator who won’t need on the job training for the big time in the Senate.
I can’t say much, because I’ve done some work with City Year, but I can tell you City Year is no ordinary nonprofit. It is an advocacy organization for public service as well, and Alan in particular has been one of the most active, visible voices for national service.
I agree if Khazei gets into the U.S. Senate race, he should and will be subjected to the types of questions you raise about his policy positions and how his experience founding and running a progressive service program would help to advance a progressive agenda in the U.S Senate.
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p>On Coakley, I am afraid I must disagree with your definition of demonstrating boldness. Coakley’s actions before and during the period of mourning for Senator Kennedy certainly revealed her naked ambition to capture the U.S. Senate seat. However, I would not characterize her political maneuvering before and after Sen. Kennedy’s death as anything but tasteless and inappropriate. Boldness, as I would define it for Coakley, would have been any effort investigate and bring criminal indictments, if warranted, against key stakeholders in the downtown law firm bond counsel/high finance/state legislators/state bureaucrats nexus that has led to millions of dollars state taxypayer funds being siphoned off to these major stakeholders in the form of sweetheart deals on state government contracts from everything from transportation to public housing to public higher education construction.
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p>If Attorney General Coakley believes she does not have the proper statutory authority to investigate and prosecute rampant political corruption in the Commonwealth, then it is her responsibility to travel up Beacon Hill, and with the support of the DAs in each county, bang on ever key state legislator’s door and enlist the political support of Governor Patrick until she gets the receives statutory authority from the Legislature to cleanse the state of the accepted political corruption and rot that is destroying our beloved Commonwealth. Of course, such a political strategy would probably raise the ire of the Beacon Hill insiders and the downtown legal and finance establishment who benefit from the status quo.
Unfortunately, our low-wattage press can’t transcend simple yes/no black/white analysis. You’re either “bold” or “not bold,” “reformist” or “not reformist.”
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p>Phillips probably would have been more accurate to say “Khazei would be a bold, reformist, and progressive voice in ways unique among the current Democratic primary candidates.” Having said that and not knowing Khazei’s positions/track record on the issues, I don’t think “bold” is an adjective that springs to mind when I hear the names Coakley, Capuano, Markey or Lynch.
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p>I suspect members of the press –like plenty of voters, including myself– are eager to see more candidates who aren’t either a) establishment pols climbing the political ladder or b) millionaires trying to spend their way into office –even if such candidates are well-qualified.
Ummm yeah, have you not seen this:
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p>His reputation is for bold leadership, and speaking the truth, popular or not.
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p>People can agree with that assessment or not, but Michael Capuano has a track record for bold votes (farm subsidies and the war in Iraq are just two) and a leadership style that is much different than Markey or Lynch, at least from my vantage point.
Gotta agree with you here.I would say that Capuano is the most committed, experienced, and boldest progressive in our delegation. I am still undecided between the announced candidates but I am leaning towards Capuano, although I honestly love him as my Congressmen and worry his replacement might be subpar. But I totally agree those votes showed guts, guts Markey, Lynch, and others simply don’t have.
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p>As for Mr. Coyle I don’t see why Coakleys ‘naked ambitions’ are somehow ‘tasteless and crude’ when it is clear that your man Khaezi and other candidates also have the exact same ambitions and have made the exact same moves to run for the seat.
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p>It seems that Coakley, arguably because she is more bold/ballsy than the other candidates, laid the groundwork a lot earlier without deference to the wishes of Ted or his kids. I actually respect that although I disagree with Coakley’s rabid pro-abortion on demand positions, her right wing drug policy prescriptions, and her support for the death penalty. We could say those things make her less progressive. You seem to have an anti-Coakley aze to grind and are unfairly attacking her record as prosecutor and her ‘naked ambition’ in ways that hurt your arguments.
I’ve voted for Capuano more than once, and applaud his evolution from a conservative-leaning mayor to a solidly progressive Congressman. Unlike some in our own delegation who should go down in infamy for voting to invade Iraq, Capuano made the honrable, intelligent and courageous choice when people everywhere were being labeled “traitors.”
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p>I also wish more progressive members of Congress emulated his greatest virtue: a principled, kick-ass, stand-up-to-the-wingnuts, fighter’s spirit.
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p>If I had to vote today, I’d vote for Capuano.
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p>But to me, “bold” means proposing, crafting and pursuing visionary ideas for transformative change, in or outside of government: the interstate highway system, the Grameen Bank, eradicating malaria, banning land mines, universal health care, extending equal marriage rights to gay Americans, the Peace Corps, etc.
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p>Surely Capuano (and others) support such causes with congressional votes; Khazei, on the other hand, is a citizen-activist who built his own organization from scratch so that voluntary service might one day be something every young person does as part of growing-up in America. He raised his own money, apparently lobbied to establish AmeriCorps on the federal level, and enlisted thousands of allegedly-apathetic young people to volunteer full-time in schools and low-income neighborhoods around the country.
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p>Eradicating malaria it ain’t, but a bold undertaking? Yes.
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p>Interestingly, Capuano must have helped Khazei as the City Year appears to be in Cap’s own district!
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p>I hope Khazei runs… and maybe Theo Epstein, too.
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p>BTW – the FAA flaks are widely-despised for mismanaging air delays and deserved Cap’s verbal thrashing –hardly an unpopular stand. Will Capuano publicly dress-down Senators Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad as vigorously when they kill the public option?
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They could have a Thanksgiving table debate.
Thats a joke right. The guy can barely run the Sox what makes you think he’d be a good senator?
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p>Also curing malaria, enacting universal healthcare, those are all goals that yes indeed the Congressmen can pass with their votes, lobby their fellow representatives to vote on, and also sponsor and push through. I don’t see how that isn’t bold in your view to stand for and work to enact legislation that is right even if it isn’t popular. Isn’t that what Ted Kennedy did his whole career?
Theo as a counter to Schilling, but more seriously I’d like to see a more accurate representation of Massachusetts’ wealth of talent and diversity.
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p>Everybody expects the career pols to move up the food chain, and several have been waiting years for their “turn.” Nothing wrong with that, but we’ve got additional talent outside of the government candidates who are officially out there.
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p>Sure it takes strength and often courage to take a stand for unpopular legislation you think is right. To me, however, Ted Kennedy’s boldness was his leadership on the idea side as well as his voting-casting. He conceived of and started pursuing universal health care decades ago, as well as voted for it. His tenacity and creativity kept in the spotlight.
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p>Everything doesn’t have to be as dramatic as finding a cure for cancer; ideas like the Morrill Land Grant Act, the Peace Corps, and rural electrification are “bold” in my book.
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p>And I don’t see any of the current candidates with much ability to come-up with such ideas and then effectively lead the charge to make them happen. Vote for them, yes, even if they’re unpopular. Generate them? Not so much.
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p>I think it’s partly a function of political-government culture that pushes people to think in very structured, survivalist, tactical terms, often at the expense of boldness and outside-the-box solutions.
I imagine that “burdensome political baggage” is a euphemism supporters of outsider candidates might use for “valuable political experience”. (I also question the use of the word “baggage” in a description of a woman candidate, but no need to start a fight over that.) In any case, Attorney General Coakley’s supposed “baggage” pales next to that of any congressperson with an extensive legislative record for people to pick over.
I think Ted Kennedy was successful because he was such a consummate insider. Sure he proposed legislation and developed new policy ideas, with the help of liberal think tanks of course, but he also had great personal relationships with his colleagues, including many across the aisle. That kind of experience is already apparent in the various Congressmen who might run. Markey has proposed bold climate legislation with his name on it and got it passed in the House. Capuano has not only taken tough votes but he has been the lead sponsor of several bills that will help veterans and their families and was a crucial behind the scenes lobbier in getting S-CHIP re-extended. I am sure Lynch and Tierney have similar records of achievement but I confess I am unfamiliar with them.
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p>This kind of experience legislating and crafting laws to me is a lot more useful than any kind of outside experience. I think eddiecoyle and others jumping on the ‘outsider’ bandwagon are confusing the functions of a Senator with that of an executive. An executive be they Governor, Mayor, CEO, or even President has to make tough decisions and propose new ideas with individual leadership. A successful Senator is still one of a hundred and has to forge coalitions and compromises with other members, an experience one majority leader likened to ‘herding cats’ which is quite difficult from an executive and I would argue a lot harder.
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p>This is why I am more inclined to support a Congressmen over an outsider or over our AG, although I’d happily vote for either if they won the nomination.
…but generally speaking I think a candidate for Senate should not be one who prompts the question, “Who’s that?”
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I chose Hillary over Obama partly over concerns about his experience, but Obama WAS a state senator before jumping to the US Senate.