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timeline
Born 1946
Elected to Cleveland City Council at 23 (1969)
Mayor of Cleveland at 31 (1977)
(Cleveland Public Power; lost re-election in 1979; award in 1998)
Ohio State Senate (1994)
U.S. House of Representatives (1996)

cleveland public power
Kucinich maintained "municipal control of Muny Light, the electric utility for part of the city. But city government was in terrible financial straits, and Kucinich was unwilling or unable to balance the budget and meet obligations. When bankers demanded he sell Muny Light, as other city-owned properties had been sold by the previous mayor, he refused, and they called their loans." (Michael Barone, The Almanac Of American Politics, 2000)

Cleveland's financial nightmare put Mayor Kucinich's "life in jeopardy, bringing an alleged $25,000 bounty on his head, and forcing Kucinich to wear a bulletproof vest. Eventually, seeing that the mayor was not going to be reelected, the hit was called off." (Ian Miller, "The Mayor, Muny And Murder Threats," The Hill, 6/21/00)

Quotes on RNC Research page calling it the worst financial straits Cleveland’s been in since The Great Depression are from 1978, when it happened.

Cleveland Magazine offered this summary: "Kucinich refused to yield to bankers who gave him a choice: Sell the Municipal Light System to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. or the city will go into default. The mayor said no."

When Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light, the banks took the unprecedented step of refusing to roll over the city’s debt, as is customary. Instead, they pushed the city into default. It turned out the banks were thoroughly interlocked with the private utility, CEI, which would have acquired monopoly status by taking over Muny Light. Five of the six banks held almost 1.8 million shares of CEI stock; of the 11 directors of CEI, eight were also directors of four of the six banks involved.

By holding to his campaign promise and putting principle above politics, he lost his re-election bid and his political career was derailed. But today Kucinich stands vindicated for having confronted the Enron of his day, and for saving the municipal power company. "There is little debate," wrote Cleveland Magazine in May 1996, "over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI." He also preserved hundreds of union jobs.

When Kucinich re-launched his political career in the mid-1990s, it was on the strength of having saved public power. His campaign symbol was a light bulb. "Because he was right!" was his campaign slogan when he won his seat in the state senate in 1994. The slogan that sent him to Washington two years later was "Light Up Congress."

In 1998, the Cleveland City Council issued a commendation to Dennis Kucinich for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."

dept. of peace proposal (hr2459-July 11, 2001)
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/action/peace.htm

Sounded kind of flakey in concept, but text of legislation actually seems to have some solid proposals to it.

platform vs. voting record
Campaign platform at own website very consistent with his “Action Center” at the House of Representatives website for him, and with his voting record, which I didn’t have to look up because the RNC did it for me.

Kucinich for President
http://www.kucinich.us

Kucinich as U.S. Representative
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/

Republican National Committee Research http://www.rnc.org/Newsroom/RNCResearch/Research030403.htm

electability
His web site points out that OH is a swing-state, has history of defeating Republicans (even in 1994), also attracts 3rd-party voters

abortion
Voted for D&X ban under Clinton, against under Bush; voted in favor of bill making it a criminal offense to injure or kill a fetus during the commission of a violent crime (from RNC Research)

I've had a journey on this issue in the last couple of years, influenced by women in my life. Before I became a presidential candidate, that dialogue led me to broaden my view and change my voting pattern. I whole-heartedly support a woman's right to choose. I have come to believe it's not just about the right to choose, but about a woman's role in society as being free and having agency and the ability to make her own decisions. When I voted recently against a ban on late-term abortions, I stated on the House floor: "I believe that equal protection under the law and the right of privacy should be freedoms enjoyed by women as well as men. But women will not be equal to men if this constitutionally protected right is denied." I want to keep working to make abortion less necessary, through sex education and birth control. But with reproductive choice under attack, I will only support someone for the Supreme Court if he or she embraces privacy rights and Roe v. Wade.

faq
www.kucinich.us

republican dissection
"WHO IS DENNIS KUCINICH? A Flip-Flopping Liberal Extremist"