NAACP forum
DENNIS AND THE NAACP EVENT - Campaign statement
Kucinich supporters have asked why the Congressman didn't attend the NAACP candidates' forum in Miami on Monday afternoon. He couldn't attend because the forum conflicted with his responsibilities as a voting member of Congress, and there were key Medicare votes late yesterday in the House.
When there have not been conflicts with Capitol Hill duties, Dennis has repeatedly attended candidates' forums held by civil rights and equal rights groups, including ones organized by the NAACP and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. (The Rainbow forum was on a Sunday.) Dennis has shined at these events, because he is a fighter for civil rights -- as he's shown year after year on Capitol Hill through his leadership role in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It's Dennis who is leading the fight to abolish the racially-biased death penalty.
Due to conflicts with his Congressional duties, Rep. Kucinich recently had to miss a candidates' forum on the environment in Los Angeles and a "Democracy Rising" rally in Baltimore -- when Dennis stayed in Washington to vote against Medicare privatization, which passed by a single vote. Unlike other presidential candidates, he is a fulltime Congressperson who has not missed a vote so far this session.
Yesterday afternoon, our campaign released this statement to the media: "Congressman Kucinich has the utmost respect for the NAACP, its leadership, its members and its mission. He regrets his absence from this afternoon's candidates' forum. His duties as a member of the United States House of Representatives required that he be in Washington today for votes. Important votes are scheduled on Medicare prescription drugs and agriculture spending. Congressman Kucinich strongly believes that it is wrong to campaign across the country on the issue of expanding healthcare coverage and then miss one of the most important healthcare votes in years."
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What happened at the NAACP forum.
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My thoughts: I think this is a really unfortunate incident all the way around. Kucinich was elected to and is being paid to represent his district in Congress and part of that responsibility is voting on legislation. Kucinich has made a commitment that his presidential campaign will not cause him to neglect the needs of his constituents. Even the Republican National Committee acknowledges that Kucinich has not missed a single vote because of campaigning (scroll down to the bottom). Overall, Kucinich has a 99% attendance rate at votes in Congress (source).
His commitment to civil rights can be seen in his voting record. He has received excellent ratings from civil rights interest groups, including the NAACP itself. He is also co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where three of the eight officers, including his co-chair, Rep. Barbara Lee, are African-American, as are 40% of the members. Apparently all of these Congresspeople think that he shares their interests and represents their views. And all of this means nothing because he was unable to attend the candidate forum due to taking part in Medicare votes in the House? It would be very unfortunate if that were true.
I wish that Kucinich had been able to attend. But I think this could have been handled in a much less inflammatory manner. I think that the Democratic party as an institution does tend to take black voters for granted, which is shameful. But I don't feel that this is the best way to respond.
BTW, does anybody know if the NAACP made attempts to arrange with Kucinich to speak via satellite or phone to the forum? I've seen this done at other candidate events where some of the candidates could not attend due to scheduling conflicts.
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