UPDATE: I want to be clear that this post is about State Representative David Caprio.  I'm not supporting anybody in the gubernatorial race.  I also forgot to mention several more key initiatives on which David's voted with the left in the last couple of years, including raising the gas tax to fund RIPTA, taxing capital gains as income, and supporting a contentious measure to put an open space bond on last year's ballot.  I added this line to the follow-up post, but this one will probably be read by more people: Put simply, if everybody voted with us as much as David has, we'd win almost every battle.

ORIGINAL: Election season is upon us, and I'm supporting my colleague State Rep David Caprio.  His political philosophy has evolved during his decade in office: He's moved steadily left over the years, and that's precisely the sort of thing we ought to take notice of and actively encourage, in him and in other elected officials.  We don't do that by ganging up on him because he's imperfect -- Especially when, in fact, he's been quite good on a slew of issues that are very important to progressives.

Some examples, culled during my 3 years as his colleague:

-Gay marriage co-sponsor, and supporter of the various other gay rights initiatives we've pushed, including monitoring of hate crimes against those who identify as transgender, funeral rights, etc;
-Pro-choice;
-Supports net-metering, wind-farm development, and renewable energy tax credits;
-Has supported three or four public-transit initiatives -- becoming an active advocate for the UPass program, after initially opposing out of concern that it'd raise tuition costs.  He met with the Sierra Club, and changed his position;
-Pro medical marijuana, and decriminalization;
-Pro probation reform (and an active advocate for it) and for ending mandatory minimum sentences, and easy expungement for first-time offenders;
-Supports pre-registration, National Popular Vote, and elections to fill US Senate vacancies;
-Voted to ban utility shut-offs for families with small children;
-Supported the foreclosure mediation bill that we just overrode the veto of;
-Voted to raise the capital gains tax to fund education -- the key budget amendment vote from a couple of years ago.

And, most critically from my perspective, in 2008 we were desperately scrambling for every vote we could muster against the draconian E-Verify legislation.  There was a lot of pressure on each and every one of us to vote the other way -- plenty of nasty phone calls and emails, active organizing by RISC, RIILE, and a number of other groups.  It was an uphill fight, and we knew we were going to lose, but every "No" vote was a courageous signal to the reactionaries, and a key building block for future work -- and David was one of just 17 neas in a chamber dominated by Democrats.  I pledged to him in that moment that I would make sure that all progressives knew that he'd stood with us, and remind the left of how terrible the anti-immigrant climate was over the course of that session -- and that I'd support him come election time.  And I stand by that promise. 

The following year he lobbied our colleagues, including many whom the left doesn't traditionally have access to, to oppose the measure, and helped secure several votes against it.  We came within a hair of killing the thing on the floor.  (And in the gallery, our supporters -- who'd technically lost the vote -- cheered more loudly than the bill's backers.)

And he's a supporter of Gordon Fox for the speakership.

In my time in the legislature, David's never advocated a reactionary agenda -- He's never been a gay-bater, or anti-immigrant, or pushed a regressive tax agenda, never ever been somebody we've had to fight against.  Where he's not been with us at the start, he's willingly engaged in conversation, and frequently changed his stance and supported a cause once he's been convinced of its merits.  

And that's all we can ask.  None of us is perfect, and perfection's far too strong a standard to hold people to -- nor is it a progressive one.  Progressives understand that everybody develops in the context of the environment from which they came.  Not everybody's born a liberal -- I was raised in a relatively conservative household, with Rush Limbaugh frequently droning out of the car radio on the way to and from school.  But I moved left over the years through a combination of personal experiences and active tutelage by friends whom I trusted and respected.  We can encourage that sort of change in people, even elected officials, by engaging them in good faith -- by making sure that they know that if they go out on the limb for us, we'll be there to back them up.

The movement needs to support those who engage us earnestly, and will be with us on most of the important issues: We can't ask a Rep or Senator to support us on this or that item, have him or her oblige, go and screw 'em anyway because he or she was only with us 80% of the time, and then still expect anybody else in the building to give a heck what we have to say.  How can we ever convert the bulk of the membership -- those who, say, support us 50% of the time -- into people who will support us 60% or 70% or 80% of the time, if we're working against the 80% supporters?  

David deserves our support, and our encouragement, and should generally be understood as a willing partner as we strive to develop a progressive Rhode Island, and a healthier economy based on our state's wonderful and unique assets.