Conventional wisdom on the MA-7 primary says Capuano is a reliable, down-the-line liberal Democratic vote with a knack for bringing home housing and transit funds. The choice in the race is thus framed as one not of policy but style—experienced insider versus activist newcomer. I think experience is a hard-won resource that both Congress and the district badly need.
But I think this whole frame is wrong.
The truth is, Mike Capuano has been far more than just a reliable vote. He has jumped into the middle of the fight and staked out principled, progressive ground on the most consequential issues of our time: war, genocide, civil liberties, inequality, and corruption. He’s founded caucuses, built coalitions, and won the trust and respect of committed activists and senior civil rights leaders.
In doing so, Capuano built up his influence while often going against the most powerful interests in his own party. That takes rare talent, courage, and persistence. And it’s one reason his leadership record flew under the radar—it was not celebrated by the national party. He went against the neoliberal grain not just recently, as part of a shift to the left, but when it was most ascendant, and he had the most to lose. The ground isn’t shifting beneath him–his kind of hard work is what shifted it.
I admire Councilor Pressley and she makes a powerful case for her candidacy. I don’t begrudge anyone their choice.
But I find it disheartening, to say the least, how many supposedly high-info progressives don’t know about, or don’t care about, what Mike Capuano has achieved over the past two decades.
So here’s a brief list of make-or-break moments in our recent history when Mike Capuano took vocal, principled stands in defiance of the powers that be.
- He was among a minority of Democrats who voted against the Patriot Act just weeks after 9/11.
- Voted against the Iraq War resolution in 2002.
- Voted against the Homeland Security Act that created ICE in 2002.
- Sued the Obama Administration for invading Libya without Congressional authorization.
- Co-founded the Sudan Caucus to stop slavery and genocide, traveled to the region in 2005, and increased funding for African Union peacekeeping.
- Supported Medicare for All when national Democratic leaders were still talking about a “grand bargain” to cut benefits.
- Proposed and co-founded the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2008.
- One of a small handful of Democrats (and a minority in MA) who voted against the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall, the financial industry regulations whose demise brought on the foreclosure crisis. Since then he has introduced a “21st-century Glass-Steagall Act.”
- Wrote foreclosure protections into the 2009 Helping Families Save their Homes Act at a time when leading democrats were allowing this bill to be gutted by financial interests.
- Co-sponsored both the Medicare for All single-payer plan and a universal buy-in option to the current Medicare system, and co-founded the caucus on community health centers.
This record isn’t the product of a liberal district, but a principled leader who listened to ordinary people and activists in the fight on the ground.
Mike Capuano stayed true to a vision of the public good at home and a moral foreign policy abroad at a time when the power in the party was flowing in the opposite direction. He may not speak the current language of social justice fluently. But he wields something deeper and better than that. I put him in a class with people like Ted Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, and Sherrod Brown, leaders who never wavered from the New Deal, Great Society, Civil Rights, end-poverty, end-war, empower-labor, tame-capital liberalism that they learned directly from the generations before them who fought to build it.
The future of the party as a progressive force depends on achieving productive new coalitions uniting the left side of the spectrum.
Mike Capuano has done the hard and necessary work of forging strong ties all across his party and beyond it, helping to create in the process a progressive power-base in Congress. His is the kind of leadership that the resurgent left will need to if it is to wield power and actually effect change.
That’s why I’m fiercely and unapologetically with Cap.
Three major movements in the last four years have expanded what was politically possible when Mike Capuano first got elected to Congress. The first is the Black Lives Matter movement, which has put efforts to combat systematic racism at the forefront of the progressive agenda. The second is the Sanders campaign, which has made living wages, Medicare for All, jobs for all, and less well known ideas like community land grants and rent control become politically mainstream. The third major movement is the #MeToo movement and the Clinton nomination breaking glass ceilings and forcing all of us to reckon with feminism as a social and economic justice movement at the core of the progressive experience. All three of these movements have also inspired black women to vote, including decisively in Alabama, and run for office in record numbers.
For far too long black women have done the brunt of the grunt work in progressive campaigns and but have sat in the back of the room while white progressive leaders were elevated to leadership. One of the most searing memories I had in Massachusetts politics was seeing a candidate of color my nascent movement was trying to endorse get told by the campaign manager of the incumbent she was challenging to get at the back of the room where they had gathered and not disturb anyone. It appalled me, but did not surprise me. Our state party has done a lousy job elevating women and people of color to leadership, our legislature is overwhelmingly one of the whitest in the country and our congressional delegation has been all white for the entirety of its history. Electing Ayanna Pressley would be another crack in that ceiling, another step forward for a region and city seeped in a racist reputation, and it would elevate another black woman to national prominence.
Unlike that lousy local leader, Mike Capuano has run a positive campaign and worked hard to reach out to the black community in Boston that has long felt ignored by this city’s political bosses. Even those who are card carrying liberals. I give him tremendous credit for taking the high road and trying to address his deficits on these issues as a member of Congress. If he wins this primary, it will because of the way he has met the challenger on her turf and her issues.
That said, this district is more her turf than it is his. 60% of this district is majority-minority and 70% of it is composed of the City of Boston. Capuano’s record as a member of Congress is unassailable on the questions of foreign policy and presidential accountability you discussed. The GLX is a great local project that is sorely needed. So is the Silver Line in Chelsea. But what about Mattapan, forced to rely on 70 year old streetcars running on 110 year old tracks? What about Roslindale and JP, largely isolated from the MBTA other than bus routes? What about Brockton and Randolph where my students last year were forced to take three hour bus rides to get back and forth to our Roxbury campus? Where’s their tech economy? Where’s their green jobs? Where’s their transit projects?
His record on delivering for the entire district is more mixed. Housing prices have skyrocketed, and he has done little to address that issue while actively taking realtor money and being a rent control opponent as an alderman and Mayor. The renaissance that he and Curtatone have admirably presided over in Somerville has come at a high cost, mainly, to the working class communities that have been priced out of there and Cambridge and increasingly out of Boston. Pressley has made housing reform a centerpiece of her agenda.
While Capuano criticizes Kapernick, Ayanna Pressley listened to her constituents, including my students, and forced the BPD to adopt body cameras. She fought Commissioner Evans and Mayor Walsh until they admitted she was right, and then she worked with them to reform this department and demand accountability. When ICE was coming into BPS, she fought back and demanded that heads roll. When reproductive rights have been on the line, she has been on the front line demanding police details for clinics. She backs unions, backs living wages, and will fight for the marginalized and neglected communities in her district. It is great that South Sudan and Libya are getting attention from our Congressman, it is time Roxbury and Mattapan did too. That is what this race is about. That is why I am voting for Ayanna.
I focused on the big national issues that have remade our economic and civil liberties landscape since the late 90s, because Cap’s leadership in Congress has been severely underrated by many progressives.
Fundamental to being an effective member of Congress is understanding how national issues, like financial deregulation and civil liberties, impact people locally. That’s kind of at the core of “all politics is local.”
But the fact is, his record advocating directly for local needs is just as strong. His work on transit spans the entire district—you left out the development of the Fairmount Line, the expansion of Ruggles Station and Whittier St. housing in Roxbury.
Check out today’s Globe piece for more.
In the spirit of Cap’s positive campaign, I’m not going to touch your interesting narratives about City of Boston issues.
What is interesting about that narrative is that you are unfamiliar with it. Clearly you’re not someone who’s worked with or intersected with people in these neighborhoods.
A lot of people feel alienated from Beacon Hill, City Hall, and left behind by Washington. Tito’s support was heaviest in the parts of the city that are in this district. I think forcing Capuano to campaign in those neighborhoods has been a net positive of this challenge.
I will admit that I was unaware of those projects and appreciate being informed of them. Without this primary, Capuano would not have to remind people of the many positive aspects of his record. That’s a positive takeaway regardless of the outcome.
The only interaction I’ve had with Capuano is when he laughed in my face about a project that is still near and dear to my heart. When he tried to run for a higher office, he revealed himself as an arrogant @$$hole who thought he was owed that office by right.
Since then, he’s been more responsive to the electorate and has fought some good fights. I’m glad he’s got opposition to make him pay a little more attention to the people he represents because, G@d knows, he needed it. He’s been an effective legislator and earned some seniority but no politician should run unopposed for too long. If he wins the primary, he should take it as a warning and keep on mending fences back home and learning a little humility as he begins to grow up.
Also look up this posters history. Clearly a paid staffer for Walsh and now Capuano.
If so he should disclose, but let’s not assume anything.
I work in government for Mayor Walsh but have never been paid by a political campaign, ever. All my political advocacy is voluntary and from the heart.
I think you’re owed an apology.
” Clearly a paid staffer for Walsh and now Capuano.”
The editors suggested that I take a vacation from BMG because I characterized a specific participant here as a “concern troll”.
In the past few days, you’ve been taking increasingly hostile cheapshots like this at a growing number of participants.
I think you should stop. Comments like this hurt both you and BMG.