When a politician changes his mind about a particular topic, especially if it’s a radical departure from a previously held opinion, it is called by that politician’s opponents and critics “flip-flopping.” The pol him- or herself calls it “keeping my position flexible to account for any new information I may receive.”
So, is Congressman Michael E. Capuano a flip-flopper or flexible?
Rep. Capuano stated last week that, should he win the US Senate special election and be seated in time to participate in a vote on federal health care reform legislation, he would oppose any bill that limited federal funding for abortion procedures. He made this statement after, as a member of the US House of Representatives, voting for a health care reform bill that limited federal funding for abortion.
He also gave Democratic rival Martha Coakley a ration of grief for espousing the exact same position: she would oppose a bill that restricted federal abortion funding.
In review: Rep. Capuano voted for a bill containing a provision that, as US Senator Capuano, he said he would oppose. I call flip-flopper.
Not that that had any influence on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to formally endorse Rep. Capuano’s candidacy. Speaker Pelosi issued her endorsement last Friday, stating her colleague had a “proven record of accomplishment in the House is clear evidence that he will be an outstanding advocate for the people of Massachusetts in the tradition of the late Senator Kennedy.”
Because, of course, what all Massachusetts voters want is Ted Kennedy Lite.
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Now we move onto some contrariness (or perhaps outright hypocrisy) on the part of Steven G. Pagliuca. This week the Boston Globe pointed out that Bain Capital, in which Steve “I won’t take special interest money” Pagliuca is a senior managing partner, has coughed up some serious coin to get some juicy tax breaks for the company.
Pagliuca’s mouthpieces said that the candidate may have been aware of this activity, but wasn’t directly involved in it, so everything is kosher. Yuh-huh.
This news broke a few days after a candidates’ forum at Harvard University last week, at which Democratic rival Alan A. Khazei took “Pags” to task for calling for limits on how much a candidate can self-finance his campaign. The burr under Khazei’s saddle: Pagliuca is sinking crazy amounts of his own scratch into his US Senate run. His TV ad campaign alone is running about $5.5 million.
Khazei challenged Pagliuca to practice what he preached, to which Pagliuca replied: “I can’t live by that now…I need to get my message out.”
I think your message is getting out, sir: “Rules are fine as long as they don’t apply to me.” Hey Steve! You sure you’ve never been in Congress before?
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State Senator Scott P. Brown (R – Wrentham) was the top dog among Plymouth County Republicans in last week’s Plymouth County GOP candidate’s forum and straw poll. He was the preferred Republican candidate for US Senate, with 88 percent support going to him and the remainder going toward Jack E. Robinson.
An aside: at this same event, Robinson challenged Sen. Brown to a debate, a challenge Brown allegedly ignored. Robinson’s response the next day, via a press release: “Scott Brown is afraid to debate me one-on-one.”
Either that or Sen. Brown simply doesn’t view him as a serious challenger (Robinson has gone down to flaming defeat in major races three times in the past nine years) and would rather concentrate on building a support base for the January 2010 special election.
Over in the still-young gubernatorial race, Charles D. Baker Jr. received 78 percent of the 325 votes cast in the straw poll, while the remaining 22 percent went to rival Christy P. Mihos.
Now, granted, a straw poll at a party committee get-together held a full year before the election is hardly a bellwether of the election to come, but despite a rather lethargic start to his campaign, Baker has gained considerable steam while the Mihos campaign has lost its early momentum. I expect we’ll see the numbers swing back and forth for a while yet.
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Side note the first: Sen. Brown was on the Cape last weekend for a fundraiser, and to open up a local campaign office at 645 Main Street in Hyannis. It’s open weekdays 9 AM to 8 PM, and will remain open at least through the December primary election (and, I’m willing to bet, up until the January 2010 special election).
I have to say, I really dig this. Candidates for the loftier offices generally don’t bother establishing a presence on the Cape – hell, most of them pretty much ignore the region altogether and stick to campaigning in the big urban communities – so it’s nice to see someone bothering to remember people down here vote too.
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Side note the second, on the Baker campaign: the Boston Globe reported last week that one of Baker’s people called one of Timothy P. Cahill’s people to see if the state treasurer-slash-independent candidate for governor would be interested in quitting his campaign to become Baker’s lieutenant governor pick.
He wouldn’t, and the Baker camp later backpedaled and said that no formal offer had been extended.
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Now that we’ve waded through all that, let’s see what the polls are saying about both of these races.
The latest Suffolk University/WHDH-TV poll is a case study in contradiction. In the US Senate race, AG Coakley is in the lead at 44 percent support, more than her three Democratic rivals combined, and yet, voters surveyed said Pagliuca was running a superior campaign (he and Capuano are at a virtual tie for second place in the Democratic primary).
The poll also did not paint an optimistic picture for Sen. Brown; in theoretical races against all four Democrats, he lost to everyone but Khazei.
Over in the governor’s race, despite approval numbers that continue to sink, incumbent Deval L. Patrick won his theoretical races against independent candidate Cahill and a Republican challenger. In both scenarios, Cahill came in second and the Republican hopeful finished third.
Mihos fared better than Baker in these theoretical races, losing to Cahill by a smaller margin, and had more overall support among registered Republicans, but Baker was more popular among “Republican-leaning independent” voters.
This could prove valuable down the road since half of Massachusetts’ registered voters are unenrolled (according to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office).
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It looks like our state auditor, A. Joseph DeNucci, will not be running for re-election after all. Mr. DeNucci, who has held the post for 23 years, announced last week he would not seek re-election and would step down at the end of his current term.
So far two Republicans have announced their candidacy for the post: Mary Z. Connaughton of Framingham and Earle Stroll of Bolton.
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Joe Connolly has re-launched his campaign website. It was last used for his 2008 re-election campaign for Norfolk County treasurer, but it’s been repurposed to support his 2010 campaign for state treasurer.
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This week’s column ends on a bit of madness that might actually be brilliance (or brilliance that might actually be madness): the Khazei camp is attempting to elevate the profile of the US Senate race (and their candidate) by challenging faux-TV pundit Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” to come to Massachusetts and moderate a debate between the four Democratic hopefuls.
Go to here to view Khazei’s YouTube video challenging Colbert to moderate the debate, and sign an online petition.
I doubt this will happen, but if it does? I am SO there, baby.
Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
