Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley announced this week that she is challenging long-time Congressman Mike Capuano for his seat representing Massachusetts 7th District that covers much of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and other communities. Some have called Pressley's decision to run a surprising move, even a long shot, considering Capuano's popularity.
WGBH All Things Considered host Barbara Howard spoke with WGBH News analyst David Bernstein about Pressley's decision to run. Berstein wrote a piece for WGBH News about Pressley, which you can read here.
Barbara Howard: Well, on the face of it, it does seem a little foolhardy to run against such a popular incumbent like Capuano. But you're making the case that if Pressley doesn't run now, the chance may pass her by. So can you explain that?
David Bernstein: Yeah, you know, in Massachusetts especially, candidates are very loath to take on incumbents within the Democratic party. You sort of leave them alone, wait your turn, wait until they decide to retire. So you don't see this very often. But the truth is that Boston City Council has tended to be a place over the last ten, twenty years, where if you stay there too long, you start to go stale politically and have a lot of trouble moving up from there to another elected position.
Howard: You've said that there's in fact a pretty dismal record for Boston city councilors running for higher office. Can you talk about that a bit?
Bernstein: Yeah, you know, we've seen so many of them try to move up that it seems like it must happen all the time. We saw several city councilors run for mayor in 2013, and then again just last year Tito Jackson from the council ran. We've seen them run for a number of different positions. But none of them have been successful running directly from the City Council in fifteen years, and hardly a blockbuster — it was Mickey Roache being elected to the Registry of Deeds. The last one to go directly from the City Council to Congress, which is what Ayanna Pressley is trying to go, was Louise Day Hicks, a sort of legendary figure. It is a female precedent, but not exactly a similar case to Ayanna.
Howard: When was that?
Bernstein: That was 1971, Louise Day Hicks, winning that congressional seat.
Howard: Okay, so right out of the gate, it sounds like she's almost doomed. I mean, everyone who's tried this pretty much hasn't succeeded. She's already broken that unwritten rule that Democrats don't challenge Democrats, is that right?
Bernstein: She has, and that's going to make it tough for her to raise some money and get some volunteers and that sort of thing, people who would be with her but they don't want to go up against someone as popular and as powerful as Michael Capuano.
Howard: Well both Pressley and Capuano, they hold similar, liberal views. So how is she going to be able to differentiate herself?
Bernstein: Right, that's going to be very interesting, because she can't really make much of a claim that she would have voted from him differently on anything in particular, or would in the future. It's going to be more about personality, more about identity politics in a sense, whether explicitly or not, that we need more people like her in Congress rather than people like him.
Howard: Well, identity politics can cut both ways, it seems. Some people get behind it 100%, but others find it aggravating.
Bernstein: That's right, and it does cut both ways, and it's going to be very tricky for her to try to position herself that way, maybe more implicitly than explicitly. But if there's ever a time to do it, you look at this cycle and look at the kind of energy that has been generated by the kinds of things she seems to embody — whether it's protesting against the racists on Boston Common, or protesting in favor of women, those Women's Marches — those are the kinds of things she embodies, the kind of energy and passion. I think she can separate herself that way from Michael Capuano even though he's on the same side on those issues.
Howard: She's been serving on the local level, but this is the U.S. Congress, and she's bound to be criticized for her lack of experience with national and international issues. How's she going to answer that?
Bernstein: Yeah, she's going to have to be very disciplined in learning a lot of subjects very quickly so she can sound like she knows what she's talking about. But I will point out that before she became city councilor, she worked on staff for John Kerry when he was a United States senator, and before that for Joe Kennedy II, when he was congressman, father of the current Joe Kennedy congressman. So she does have that congressional and senate staff experience that she can point to and draw upon. But she is going to have to prove she can handle those kinds of topics.
Howard: Okay, thanks a lot for joining us David.
Bernstein: Thank you, it's my pleasure.
Howard: That's WGBH News analyst David Bernstein. He has a piece up on our website, wgbhnews.org, on the candidacy of Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who is challenging longtime representative Mike Capuano for his seat in Congress. This is All Things Considered.
