Speaker Pelosi Endorses Mike Capuano for U.S. Senate

By Justin A. Rice
Special to Boston24

BOSTON — Rep. Michael Capuano looked on like a proud student whose teacher just plastered a gold star on his chest on Friday morning as he stood next to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The six-term congressman from Somerville earned Pelsoi’s endorsement to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy just days after a controversy between Capuano’s rival — frontrunner Martha Coakley — squabbled about an anti-abortion amendment in the president’s health care bill.

Capuano jumped all over the Massachusetts Attorney General after she said on Monday that she would not vote for any bill containing the so called Stupak-Pitts amendment that limits federal funding for abortions. The following day, however, Capuano shifted his position, saying he only voted on the bill in congress last weekend to push it through to the Senate and ultimately would not approve anything with anti abortion language.

So when Pelosi pinned her stamp of approval on Capuano in a meeting room at the Omni Parker House Hotel on Friday he could have beamed through the ceiling.

“The vote on the floor is a vote to move the process forward,” Pelosi declared. “Why would we defeat that and then lose an historic opportunity to go forward? Then you see what happens in conference, and then reserve judgment as to whether you want to support the bill at the end of the day.”

“There you have it, this is why she’s speaker, this is why I have faith in her,” Capuano said. “You heard what she said. She is right and everyone in the democratic caucus knows that.”

Pelosi went even further, branding her colleague’s vote for the bill as “courageous” and seemingly took a swipe at Coakley by saying: “Any one of us could have found one reason or another not to vote for the bill. But that was not an excuse for preventing this historic moment from taking place.”

The bill is currently in the Senate and if it passes would move to a House-Senate conference committee where differences in the legislation can be hashed out. If the anti abortion amendment remained, Capuano could vote against the final bill, but Pelosi said she does not think it will come to that.

While some have said Coakley has accused Capuano of flip-flopping to her position, during a radio debate at WTKK-FM on Thursday, Coakley said Capuano was the only one on the attack.

“[The Stupak-Pitts amendment is] incredibly restrictive on women’s rights and went further than any current status quo on women’s rights to choice,” Coakley said. “Having said that I didn’t criticize anyone else. I was asked how I would vote and the congressmen criticized me for it. He’s made a record of asking voters how he’s voted on principle.

“That’s all I said, I still believe it is right and I still believe we can get good healthcare without compromising rights.”

Coakley has done well to energize a base of women voters and has been endorsed by the majority of the female political big hitters in the state, including Senate President Therese Murray.

Just weeks before the Dec. 8 primary, Pelosi’s endorsement was also seen as a huge shot in the arm for the former mayor of Somerville, because he trails the only woman in the race by a wide margin.

Earlier in the week a Suffolk University/7News poll had Coakley netting 44 percent of the vote in her quest to become the first female senator from Massachusetts while Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca each had 17 percent and Capuano had 16. Three percent went for City Year founder Alan Khazei and twenty percent were undecided.

State Sen. Scott Brown and Duxbury businessman Jack E. Robinson are vying for the Republican nomination and the final special election to permanently fill Kennedy’s seat will be Jan. 19.

Capuano is also a key member of the Pelosi leadership team. She chose him to lead a House ethics reform committee and he also accompanied her to Darfur in the wake of genocide there. Pelosi called Capuano “operational” instead of “ideological.” She noted that he was one of the first to support her bid to take the top spot of the House and that they first bonded over the fact that they are both Italian American.

“He’s a tremendous resource to me,” she said. “I have to admit it will be my loss when Michael goes to the Senate but I will be very proud.”