"I believe that the voters of Massachusetts want to continue the progressive ideals that Senator Ted Kennedy fought for during his decades of service," Capuano's statement reads. "No other candidate being mentioned or already announced more closely mirrors Ted Kennedy's positions on important issues of war and peace."
Capuano, who after Dartmouth went on to earn a law degree from Boston College, was first elected to Congress in 1988 and represents Massachusetts eighth Congressional District, which is considered one of the safest Democratic districts in the country. Both John F. Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II previously represented the district, which covers a portion of the city of Boston as well as Chelsea, Cambridge and Somerville.
Joseph Kennedy announced earlier this week that he would not seek the Senate seat.
With Kennedy out of the running, significant funds that would have gone towards his campaign are now available for other Democratic candidates seeking the seat, according to Dennis Hale, a political science professor at Boston College.
Capuano is the third Democrat to indicate an interest in Kennedy's seat, along with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.
"Capuano has obvious strengths as a candidate for senator, including that he is tight with labor and has a good liberal voting record," Hale said.
Lynch will be Capuano's primary competitor among the other Democratic candidates because the two share similar backgrounds and appeal, Hale said.
"They both come from union families," Hale said. "So they would be competing for the same collection of voters, so my guess is that one of them will drop out [of the Senate race] at some point."
Although candidates are just now announcing their intention to run for the open Senate seat, planning for those campaigns began long ago, Hale said.
"It was apparent that Ted Kennedy's career was ending soon," Hale said. "But given how important and popular Kennedy was, at least in Democratic circles in the state, nobody could really campaign while he was still alive."
Since Massachusetts Democrats share similar policies, other factors such as presentability, age and ethnicity will help voters make distinctions among the candidates during the early rounds of the election process, Hale said.
Capuano and other state Democrats all endorse health care reform and increasing taxes for high-income individuals, and tend to be skeptical of continuing the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
Capuano, however, hails from a particularly liberal district, according to Fred Bayles, director of the Statehouse Program at Boston University, which covers politics for news outlets around the state. Bayles questioned whether a campaign by Capuano, arguably most far left of the current Democratic candidates, would see state-wide success.
"His district is a good base for him, but his district is not representative of the whole state," Bayles said.
As a member of the House of Representatives, Capuano serves as a member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and has helped to secure aid for poorer African nations, as well as for victims of genocide in Sudan. Capuano also spearheaded current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's transition to that position, and now serves as chairman of the Speaker's Task Force on Ethics Enforcement.
Capuano's press secretary, Alison Mills, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday morning.
