New In The Phoenix -- Senate Positioning

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I write about some of the ways the Democratic candidates for US Senate are trying to get attention and position.

I start with a look at how Congressman Michael Capuano is trying to use prominent female endorsers to signal to women that they needn't feel obligated to vote for Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Which makes me wonder: when Alan Khazei announced the endorsement of Michael Bloomberg, was it a signal that obscenely rich people needn't feel obligated to vote for Steve Pagliuca?

In any event, I go on to look at how the candidates are trying to respond to issues that come up in the news cycle, like health care and Afghanistan. This leads me to suggest that Pagliuca's wealth is allowing him to try to set the campaign agenda -- by flooding the airwaves with ads about his prefered issues, like job creation, in hopes that people will then focus on that rather than, say, foreign policy, which is not his strength.

Anyway, all this and more can be found in the article, at this link:

Ladies' Man: In his race for US Senate, Michael Capuano is using well-known women to battle the race's female front-runner.