Capuano: A Washington Insider, Unknown At Home

By Fred Thys October 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — MIKE CAPUANO HAS JUST LEFT A DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS on health care in the new underground Capitol Visitors’ Center. Most members of Congress walk the corridors back to their offices, but Capuano takes advantage of the Washington weather, much balmier than Boston’s this time of year, by going outside.

Someone calls, “Senator!” from a limousine.

Along my walk with him, Capuano gets several greetings like this from colleagues — Democratic and Republican — who wish him well in his Senate race. He’s clearly well known on Capitol Hill. In fact, the speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, picked him to strengthen ethical rules for members of Congress.

Mike Capuano mixes with members of Brookline's Democratic Town Committee. (Fred Thys/WBUR)

Meredith McGehee, the policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said Pelosi picked Capuano “because she trusted him to be able to balance the pressures internally and the pressures from outside groups like us who wanted strong ethics.”

McGehee tried to persuade Capuano to put more teeth into ethics reform. She wanted him to give more power to investigators looking into ethics violations by members of Congress, specifically the power to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

But Capuano resisted because he thought that would never fly with members of Congress.

“He is one very tough guy,” McGehee said.

THAT TOUGHNESS HAS WORKED WELL for his constituents. He has won federal dollars for projects such as medical research in his district, which includes parts of Boston and all of Chelsea, Somerville and Cambridge. In one case, he managed to get money for research into ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Carol Hamilton, the director of government affairs at the ALS Therapy Institute, was impressed with Capuano’s dogged determination to secure the funds. “Through his office over the course of the next couple of years, he led us to key players in committees to familiarize the rest of the hill,” Hamilton said.

Returning veterans have twice the rate of ALS as the general population, so Capuano decided to go where the money was for the research: to the Pentagon. Hamilton admired how Capuano was able to work the system.

“It’s almost like working with a smiling bulldog,” Hamilton said. “Although he won’t smile if he’s not happy, which you really appreciate when you’re working with someone whose honesty you really need. It is a reliable office. If Capuano or his staffers tell you they’re going to do something, they will do it. ”

Capuano himself said his staff is so successful in part because they’re so experienced.

“I’ve been very lucky that most of my staff is probably the longest-serving staff in Congress for a member,” he said. ” I don’t know that — there’s no place you can measure that — but the average staffer in D.C. lasts 18 months, and everybody knows it. ”

THE DILEMMA FOR CAPUANO is that he is well known in Washington, but he is still a relative unknown in most of Massachusetts, and there are only nine weeks to go to the Democratic primary.

As the sun sets over Capitol Hill, he walks from his last caucus of the day to a town house a few blocks away. There, his campaign robocalls voters across Massachusetts. If they want to ask him a question, they stay on the line. For two hours, he talks to voters.

One caller, Melissa, told Capuano that she doesn’t know anything about him, then asks him why the federal stimulus has not created more construction jobs in Massachusetts. “It really is one of the main reasons why I would like to serve in the Senate, and the stimulus is a classic example,” Capuano said. “For me, the thing that I pushed hardest for is to create more construction jobs.”

When Capuano is not in Washington making calls, he’s in Massachusetts meeting voters in person. At the Nashoba Brook Bakery in Concord, he took digs at his opponents’ lack of experience in Washington.

“I’m not running for philanthropist. I’m not running for prosecutor,” he said. “They don’t let you get elected to be multimillionaire. I’m running for United States Senate. That’s the job that you should be looking for the qualifications for.”

He’s not afraid of being seen as a Washington insider. In fact, he tells the crowd of about 70 people, that’s exactly what they should be looking for in a senator.

“Bringing home the bacon,” he said. “I know that’s a tough term. Some people never want to hear that. Well, guess what? Ted Kennedy did it for years — proudly, rightly. I think if we don’t replace him with somebody who knows how to do it, this state will suffer.”

Capuano wants people to vote for him because he can bring money to the state, but he also wants them to vote for him because of what he believes.

“I voted against the Iraq war, ” he said. “On health care, I’m for a strong public option because of competition. I have been a supporter of Cape Wind from day one. I do not agree with term limits. If we had term limits, Ted Kennedy would never have become the greatest senator in the history of this country.”

Capuano also talked about the aspect of campaigning he dislikes the most.

“See these two phones?” he asked the audience. “I got another one in my pocket. You know what they’re for? This one is for incoming fundraising calls. This one is for outgoing fundraising calls. This one is for government calls. You think I like walking around with three cell phones? ”

Capuano said it’s OK with him if, in the race for the Senate, he’s behind in money and in the polls. He’s used to being the underdog. In 1998, when he first ran for Congress, there were 10 candidates. The former mayor of Boston, Ray Flynn, was the favorite. The early polls showed Capuano a distant second. But he won.

John T. Zelazo

If the election were not a special one and Capuano had to give up his Congressional seat to seek the Senate, I doubt that he would have jumped into the campaign; whereas Coakley probably would have and evidently thinks she defacto has already given up her AG post when she speaks of getting into the race as a notable brave act on her part. She is eveidently already seeking re-election, just who is she so afraid of in 2012?
Krodamai Iaho

This article captures the man pretty well, IMO. He’s up front and truthful and says what he means. Over 11 years he’s been my representative, I’ve never heard him blow sunshine or sugarcoat the hard truth. I can scarcely find friends, acquaintances or coworkers with this fine quality — this guy is a rare gem to have for a Senator. And I simply wouldn’t trust any of the other candidates to tell me the straight story.
http://www.media.mit.edu/~lieber Henry Lieberman

This article is trying to be complimentary, but it says some things that don’t sound so great.

* “Being tough” against a group who is trying to improve ethics standards?

* Carrying a different cell phone for fundraising calls? So that if your phone records are subpoenaed those calls won’t be on the record?

Hmm….
Lisa

I got an unsolicited “Town Meeting” call last night from Capuano. Other callers from across the state asked questions and he answered them with very straightforward answers, imho. With my typical evening responsibilities at home, its unlikely I could get out to a community event but I was interested enough in the questions and his answers that I stayed on & listened for almost an hour. I’m still undecided as I have still heard very little directly from the other candidates, but I thought this was a very effective way to reach potential voters.
http://www.wbur.org Fred Thys

This is Fred Thys, the political reporter at WBUR. Capuano carries separate cell phones for fund-raising and for government work because he cannot use a government cell phone to raise money.
Mary M

@Henry–he’s required to have separate phones, you can’t do campaigning on government property/phones.

And maybe Mike is a hidden gem for those constituents like me. But that’s because he’s not a showboat, getting himself in front of cameras all the time. He’s actually working for us. I don’t have a problem with that at all.

But one of the major losses about Teddy is that his office was the _master_ of constituent services. Remember all those stories people told about their personal interaction with him and his office? That’s what I want, and I know Mike can deliver that.
davis mclaren

They put him in charge of ethics? They are still cleaning up the corruption messes he left in Somerville!
Joe Beckmann

Pooor Davis Mclaren, you don’t know what Somerville was before Mike. Except for John Buonomo – who, incidentally, Mike beat – there haven’t been any more real draino cleanups since the days of “Uncle LaLa” and the boys of Winter Hill. Now, that doesn’t mean everybody is very squeaky in office these days, but it does mean that the city has change profoundly. The only reason you find it still a little shifty is that it’s a genuinely transparent, chaotic, and often contentious political landscape where class, language, ethnicity, and every other variable are both badges of honor and marks of shame, depending on who or where you are. That is what makes it so much FUN, Davis, and you should play in it with the rest of us. When you need a scorecard to find whose mistress has what job that affects whose parking or garbage or zoning or taxes, ah, then you’ve hit a level of political insight that is truly community-based. And, mark me, that’s not Mike, nor Mike’s organization. It’s “the other guys” who – among others – included other mayors.

One theme Thyss ought to have mentioned, by the way, is that, although Coakley has raised a lot of new money, Mike began with a tidy sum that reflects his history of federal campaigns, and Martha has had the devil of a time spending here state campaign money illegally for her federal campaign. Even at that, however, it’s not been like the Celtics Monseigneur who does it the old fashioned way – by writing checks.
Susan Fendell

I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by Rep. Capuano. While no Dennis Kucinich, he’s been relatively progressive on the bills he’s cosponsored and with his votes. I too liked the telephone town hall because people actually asked hard questions to which he gave decent responses. And unlike any of the other candidates for Senate, he has been more specific about how he will vote and his tendencies are in line with mine. The other candidates’ websites are full of empty verbiage – one really can’t tell how any of the others will vote. Check out health care, e.g. I wish WBUR coverage would be more about how the candidates contrast on the issues than about the horse race.
Jamie Jones

I also received an unsolicited call from Rep. Capuoano at 6:30 tonight to participate in the tele Town Hall. I’m not sure I appreciate this. If I want to participate in his town hall meeting, I’ll do it myself. I equate this to having someone show up at my house unannounced and say, “let’s party!” rather than calling in advance and letting me know there’s a party going on somewhere else if I’d like to go to it. The fact that the call would be recorded and the recording posted on a website (which website? for how long?) was also glossed over.

The Capuoano campaign had previously raised my concern about its lack of awareness for citizen’s privacy when it sent out a bulk email blast and someone mismatched recipient’s names and emails. So, I received an email that said “Dear Chris Smith” instead of “Dear Jamie Jones” but with my email listed. Chris Smith, or someone else, apparently received a “Dear Jamie Jones” email with MY email address on it. I did not appreciate my email being distributed to a stranger through a glitch like this; the Capuoano campaign’s sloppiness is inexcusable.

Because of Capuoano’s sloppiness and lack of awareness about citizen’s privacy, I’ll probably be voting for Coakley despite the fact that she lacks both Washington experience and legislative experience. At least she understands the law.

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