Passionate sense of right and wrong drives Capuano

On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1993, Michael E. Capuano, then the mayor of Somerville, was tossing fly balls to his 9-year-old son in a Tufts University field while a trio of unleashed dogs - two rottweilers and a golden retriever - romped nearby.

After asking the owners to keep a closer eye on the dogs, Capuano returned to his son. The dogs edged closer. Capuano tossed another fly ball. And when his son became so distracted that the ball hit him in the face, Capuano had had enough.

Seizing a baseball bat, he stalked off toward the animals, only to be intercepted by Tracey M. Brown, a lifelong Somerville resident and the owner of one of the rottweilers.

“Nice lesson you’re teaching your son,’’ Brown recalled saying. “The way you solve a problem is to pick up a bat. Why don’t you try solving your problem with words?’’

In fact, numerous words were exchanged but they were all of the heated variety. And in the end, Brown filed an application for a criminal complaint - dismissed a month later for a lack of evidence - alleging that Capuano “threatened to kill my dog and then me while holding an aluminum bat.’’

Although Capuano denied threatening to kill Brown, he never denied threatening to kill her dog and, to this day, remains unapologetic. “I would like you to find the father who would let a rottweiler rip his kid apart,’’ he said. “Was I angry? Damn right I was.’’

Indeed, public sentiment, expressed at the time in letters to the local paper, tilted in his favor, and even Brown recently said, “He was concerned for his kid, which I totally understand.’’

Now, Capuano is running for the US Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy as a self-described “fighter’’ for liberal causes. The bat may be gone, but the anger is often there, as visible, sometimes as palpable, as ever.

How Capuano’s fighting stance will play in a special Democratic primary is anyone’s guess. At the very least, it sets him apart from the rest of the field, especially the perceived front-runner, Attorney General Martha Coakley, a cautious candidate of considerable polish.

Still, Capuano’s supporters often cite his two-fisted style as a reason to back him.

“It’s his aggression,’’ said US Representative Barney Frank, the Newton Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Highlighting Capuano’s consistently liberal voting record, Frank notes the disproportionate power of conservative ideologues in the Senate, asserting that liberals need their own crusader.

“Mike is a very tough guy in that sense,’’ he said. “If he thinks he’s right, he doesn’t care who he alienates.’’

And there is another. Now in his sixth term as the representative from the 8th Congressional District, Capuano has compiled one of the more liberal voting records on Capitol Hill. He voted against the authorization to invade Iraq, opposed the Patriot Act, and is opposed to the death penalty. He has also been a consistent supporter of abortion rights, gay marriage, and tenants rights.

But he is no reformer. A one-time Beacon Hill lobbyist (in the days before he was elected mayor of Somerville), Capuano has accepted campaign contributions from lobbyists and taken money from political action committees - organizations that make campaign contributions on behalf of special interests. He has jetted thousands of miles on frequent Congressional trips around the globe, many of them funded by taxpayers, others by corporate and special interests.

On the campaign trail, Capuano frequently argues that his insider status in Washington will translate into benefits for Massachusetts. And there is significant evidence for this. As the sole member of the Massachusetts delegation sitting on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, for instance, Capuano helped steer $3.7 billion to Massachusetts for highway and bridge repair, and another $1.6 billion for mass transit, to cover six years of publicly financed transportation projects.

Capuano enjoys powerful status within the House. He is one of Nancy Pelosi’s most trusted lieutenants, even running her transition to power when she ascended to House speaker, and overseeing her effort to establish a new group to strengthen enforcement of congressional ethics rules. For an inside player, his interests occasionally run far afield, never more than with his founding of the Congressional Caucus on the Sudan, which he has used to direct attention to slavery and genocide.

But Capuano’s insider status has also generated controversy. During his nearly 11 years in Congress, PACs have donated about 35 percent of the $5.4 million he has raised in political contributions. And although most members of Congress accept PAC donations, Capuano has come under particular fire for accepting PAC money and individual contributions from the PMA Group, a lobbying firm that closed earlier this year after federal prosecutors raided its offices.

The firm is reportedly under investigation for using straw donors to mask illegal campaign contributions, and for giving dinners and other gifts to members of Congress in violation of congressional ethics rules. Two of the alleged donors reportedly under investigation - a sommelier and a golf course marketing director - donated a total of $4,000 to Capuano, according to records kept by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics. Capuano, meanwhile, says there is virtually no way to detect questionable contributions from individuals, except in hindsight, and is donating an amount of money equal to what he received from PMA - more than $100,000 - to Massachusetts charities.

Capuano’s connection to PMA was highlighted by a 2001 Vanity Fair article that recounted an evening when several congressman, one of them Capuano, were having dinner and singing songs at the Capital Grille, a Washington steakhouse, only two nights after the 9/11 attacks. Capuano says that there was nothing wrong with a group of congressmen eating out together at a time when all United States flights had been grounded.

But in hindsight, what stands out in the article are the congressmen’s hosts: PMA founder Paul Magliocchetti and PMA associate Daniel Cunningham. And although Capuano says he has not seen Magliocchetti in more than a year, he defends his association with the man in typically combative fashion, saying, “He’s never done anything bad to me or the interests of Massachusetts.’’

“My story is not special,’’ he insists, recounting his youth in hardscrabble Somerville and his days as an alderman and mayor. “I never thought I’d be a congressman. I keep waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘We didn’t mean you.’ ’’

But later in the day, at a campaign stop at Peppercornz on Main, a South Weymouth restaurant, there’s another Capuano on display. Here, it’s Mike Capuano, Dartmouth ‘73, BC Law ‘77, easily bantering in a room packed with 40 or so voters who are more concerned about abortion rights and international affairs than the bread-and-butter issues Capuano addressed in Quincy.

Capuano will never mention his education here. There’s no need. His intelligence is clearly evident as he adroitly fields a slew of questions on subjects ranging from universal health care to last year’s fiscal crisis, from the fighting in Afghanistan to the recent scandals that have plagued Capitol Hill.

Once again his fighting spirit - indeed, his anger - is on display. In opening remarks he vows that he would never “back off from a fight,’’ a promise that is quickly fulfilled when he is asked about a news item on ethical infractions by members of Congress and pushes back, never mentioning the criticism he has weathered for accepting PMA money. “I think innocent until proven guilty applies to legislators, too,’’ he says.

There was nothing illegal about the special-interest-funded trip that Capuano and his wife made to Brazil in 2005. But it triggered criticism from watchdog organizations that are concerned about the influence of well-heeled lobbyists and corporate interests on members of Congress.

The $19,400 tab for the one-week journey was picked up by the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute, which is funded by an array of corporate sponsors, and Capuano and his wife were accompanied by several of their lobbyists during meetings with Brazilian business leaders and government officials.

To the watchdog organizations, the trip seemed especially brazen because it was made in the wake of the influence-peddling scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, among other charges.

Congress has since banned special-interest and lobbyist-paid travel but Capuano is, once again, unapologetic. “I’m glad I went to Brazil,’’ he says, adding that he picked up valuable information on the country’s trade and energy policies. “They’re energy-independent. If they can do it, why the hell can’t we?’’

Item: A framed reproduction of a cartoon from his first run for Congress that shows him about to punch a hapless opponent in the face. (“I’m proud of being a hard-nosed politician,’’ he explains.)

Item: A prominent wall photograph of a Somerville everyman standing in his garden in front of a triple-decker. (“That’s my soul; that’s who needs me,’’ Capuano says of the subject.)

Item: A campaign flier used by his father during one of two unsuccessful campaigns for mayor of Somerville, waged in 1953 and ‘55. (Asked about it, he pauses before answering.)

The candidate in those elections, Andrew Capuano, was a World War II hero who served two terms as alderman - the first Italian-American to hold the position - and worked for the state’s Department of Corporations and Taxation, now known as the Department of Revenue.

On the inside of the flier, there’s a photo of what appears to be a large, happy family. But in many ways it’s a reminder of the tragedies that struck the Capuano household and a possible clue to the anger that has propelled Capuano’s career.

When asked, Capuano will say that his anger stems from his days as a young father, when he discovered there wasn’t a Somerville park clean enough or safe enough for his two young sons, or he’ll mention the lack of economic opportunity faced by many of his working-class Somerville constituents. But when he studies the photograph he is reminded of someone else, someone missing: an older sister who died of polio.

“I barely remember my sister. I was three when she died,’’ he says. “But I remember the devastation in the family. You never get over it.’’

He also had another older sister who died in childbirth.

Growing up, young Mike Capuano would struggle with asthma, missing much of fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. But missing all that school may have been a blessing in disguise. As he kept up with his homework, under his mother’s watchful eye, it soon became clear that Capuano was brighter than most. At Somerville High School, he scored well on the math and physics SATs, won early acceptance to Dartmouth, where he excelled in Chinese-language classes, and would go on to graduate from Boston College Law School.

“Michael is a very bright guy,’’ said Marty Meehan, the former congressman who is now the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. “He’s more Dartmouth than Somerville but he’ll never admit it.’’

One reason might be the political demands of running for office in Somerville, a city where politics is often more a contact sport than a high-minded debate over issues. Indeed, Capuano’s take-no-prisoners attitude reached full flower during his mayoralty and the hotly contested campaigns he waged to gain and keep the office.

Today, Capuano is credited with avoiding the corruption that tainted Somerville politics in the 1970s, achieving fiscal stability during the recession of the early 1990s, and building more parks, a personal mission.

Joseph A. Curtatone, now Somerville’s mayor and a onetime foe-turned-supporter, says Capuano’s most significant legacy may turn out to be the long-awaited Assembly Square multi-use development, which Capuano began planning as mayor and has pushed as a congressman. The project is slated to include a new Ikea retail outlet, along with office space, a hotel, condominiums, and rental housing.

“He got the ball rolling,’’ Curtatone said.

Although Michael and Joe have their own lives, the entire family spends time campaigning for Capuano, often at night and on weekends, but also during the week, when Capuano is in Washington.

“We’re all out there,’’ Barbara says. “We’re out there as often as we can be.’’

For Barbara, who met Capuano back at Somerville High, this is nothing new. Over 35 years of marriage, she has campaigned with him since he won a seat as Somerville’s Ward Five alderman in 1977, and has helped out in more than a dozen campaigns since.

She has also been his frequent companion on overseas congressional trips, attending formal receptions and meetings with government officials, acting as a second set of eyes and ears for her congressman husband.

But even here, in his own kitchen, drinking coffee with his wife and a reporter, Capuano’s anger simmers just below the surface.

He bristles when asked why he accepts campaign contributions from political action committees and lobbyists.

“I don’t have a bunch of millionaire friends. I have no choice,’’ he says, adding that he favors publicly financed campaigns as a means of ending donations by lobbyists and PACs.

And he smolders when asked if he remains friends with Paul Magliocchetti, founder of the PMA Group, the shuttered lobbying firm under federal investigation that has donated money to his campaigns.

“How do you define ‘friend?’ ’’ he asks.

At one point, Barbara Capuano intervenes, resting her hand on the reporter’s arm: “You’re going to clean up his language, aren’t you?’’

In fact, Capuano rarely drops an expletive but anger is the fuel that makes him go. When asked what triggered his interest in running for mayor, he does not hesitate. “I got mad,’’ he says, recalling his fruitless search for a park fit for his young sons.

Then he adds, “I’m still angry. I’m angry about a lot of things.’’

Michael Rezendes can be reached at rezendes@globe.com.