CAPUANO FAILED TO EXPLOIT POT REFORM ISSUE

To the editor:

Since Jan. 20, letter writers and pundits have written analyzing why
Scott Brown, a Republican, won the Senate seat in Massachusetts. I
went with my conscience and voted for independent Joe Kennedy, the
true peace-and-prosperity candidate. Nonetheless, I offer my thoughts
on why a Republican won in this state where 37 percent of the voters
are registered Democrats, 13 percent Republicans, and the rest
independents. The blame goes to Mike Capuano, the congressman from
Somerville and a co-sponsor of a federal marijuana decriminalization
bill, who lost to "Reefer Mad" Martha Coakley in the Democratic primary.

Coakley must have known of his sponsorship of federal marijuana law
reform. She led the opposition to Question 2 in 2008. Her side lost
in a landslide. In this latest election cycle, Coakley did the safe
and prudent thing by not raising the "marijuana question." Capuano
miscalculated by not challenging her on it.

Had he won the primary, Capuano could have used the same club to
dispel perceptions of Scott Brown as a populist by pointing out that
he, too, opposed Question 2 and filed legislation to gut it, though
in his election to the state Senate in 2008, almost 8,700 more people
in his district voted for Question 2 than voted for him.

I believe Capuano didn't raise the marijuana question because he and
his advisers didn't think of it as a wedge issue. Years of public
silence on the marijuana question deafened him to the voice of the
voters expressed in the privacy of the voting booth on Question 2.

As we enter the 2010 election cycle politicians should keep his
mistake in mind.

Steven S. Epstein, Esq.

Georgetown

(Editor's note: Steven Epstein is founder of the Massachusetts
Cannabis Reform Coalition. Question 2, which decriminalized
possession of small amounts of marijuana, was approved by a large
majority statewide in 2008.)