Kucinich unafraid of uphill challenge
Originally published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 10/12/03 ]
Kucinich unafraid of uphill challenge
Controversial populist views shaped by hard childhood
By WILLIAM HERSHEY
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich on Monday will write the latest chapter in a rags-to-political-riches story that began in a setting that makes Abraham Lincoln's log cabin sound like a country estate.
He will return to Cleveland City Hall, where he served two tumultuous years as mayor in the 1970s, to formally announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Cleveland stop kicks off a four-day tour with stops in 12 cities, ending Thursday in Washington.
All that travel is nothing new to him.
By the time he was 17, Kucinich and his family had lived in 21 places, including a couple of cars.
"Everyone wants to connect with the American people," said Kucinich. "I just happen to come from circumstances that, shall we say, are a little bit different. You don't have to make things up."
Kucinich was the eldest of Frank and Virginia Kucinich's seven children. Kucinich's mother was Irish and his truck driver father, Croatian.
What became Kucinich's greatest victory as mayor -- his battle to hold on to the city's Municipal Light System and provide electricity at the lowest cost possible to Cleveland residents -- had its roots in his impoverished upbringing.
At his 50th birthday party in a Cleveland bar, he recalled his parents sitting at their porcelain-topped kitchen table, counting pennies to come up with the money to pay their electric bill.
"It matters how people pay for electricity. It matters how people pay for health care and it matters that people have a secure retirement," Kucinich said.
His support for organized labor also comes from his own experience. During a lunch while running for Congress in 1996, Kucinich, who has held a host of jobs over the years, put down his chopsticks and pulled out his wallet to flash membership cards from two unions: the Teamsters and a photographers union.
"These are my brothers and sisters," said Kucinich before plowing back into the white rice and vegetables at No. 1 Kitchen Chinese Food on Cleveland's west side.
Committed to causes
His rugged upbringing has helped define his populist politics, said Tim Hagan, a Cleveland area Democrat who has been both a friend and foe of Kucinich over more than a quarter of a century.
"You have to give him high marks for overcoming what I consider a wrenching childhood, and I think that is at the core of his personality -- fighting back. 'I'm going to prove myself. I'm going to overcome any obstacle,' " said Hagan.
As chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party in the late 1970s, Hagan helped lead a recall effort that nearly turned Kucinich -- the youngest mayor ever in a major American city when he was elected at age 31 -- out of office before his two-year term ended.
Hagan supports Sen. John Kerry for president but has mended political fences with Kucinich, 57, and has voted for him in his House races.
"I think he's a good voice in the Congress. I respect him for that. He is the least encumbered by any special interests," said Hagan.
Kucinich has won re-election three times after defeating a Republican incumbent in 1996. In 2002 he got 74 percent of the vote.
"They believe he's a fighter. He's fighting for them," said Cuyahoga County Republican Chairman Jim Trakas, a state legislator.
Kucinich's connections to Cleveland are clear. He carries a baseball card of Rocky Colavito, the former Cleveland Indians slugger, in his wallet. There is a poster of Larry Doby, the former Indians star and the first African-American player in the American League, in the reception area of his congressional office.
Kucinich's positions in the presidential campaign -- many stemming from his congressional career -- are also clear.
He wants to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. He wants to set up a universal single-payer national health insurance system. And he wants to pull the United States out of both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. He wants to establish a Cabinet-level Department of Peace.
His admirers say Kucinich, a vegan, takes a "holistic" approach to both life and politics.
"He understands how interconnected social and political issues are," said John Borders, a real estate attorney who helped organize two events for Kucinich in Kentucky earlier this year.
"He understands, for example, that if you're concerned about environmental issues you have to be concerned with civil rights. . . . He understands that when you're talking about peace, that walks hand in hand with labor."
Kucinich is friends with a Hollywood celebrity associated with holistic thinking -- actress Shirley MacLaine. The Washington Post has reported that she recruited him as an interviewer for a series of Webcasts taped to promote a new book.
"Shirley and I are old and dear friends," Kucinich told the newspaper. He said the actress was the godmother of his daughter, Jackie.
Kucinich says that as a presidential candidate, he would broaden the Democrats' appeal. "I can bring Greens, Natural Law [followers]. . . . I can bring the blue-collar Democrats back who went with Ronald Reagan years ago. They perceive the Democratic Party [as] not being relevant," Kucinich said in a telephone interview last week.
So far, though, he has barely registered in national polls and doesn't even lead the Democratic presidential pack in Ohio.
A national CBS New/New York Times Poll, taken Sept. 28-Oct. 1, ranked Kucinich last among the 10 Democratic candidates then in the race. He got 1 percent support. Since then, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida dropped out.
Kucinich dismissed the polls, saying Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton fared poorly in early polls but eventually won.
"We're getting more and more offers of help," said Kucinich. "People see that I have a message."
Energizing a crowd
On the stump, Kucinich delivers that message with uncompromising rhetoric, and occasionally a sense of drama.
Campaigning in Lexington, Ky., in March -- just after President Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face attack from the United States and its allies -- Kucinich wrapped himself in the flag to protest the looming war.
"It's our flag," Kucinich told a downtown anti-war rally. "It needs to be connected that patriotic Americans oppose the war. People who love this country oppose the war. People who would die for this country oppose the war."
Earlier, before a crowd of 800 in the Kentucky Theatre, he started singing in a soft but sure voice:
"My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. Of thee I sing."
Kucinich began a second song and the crowd sang along:
"O, say does that Star Spangled Banner . . ."
Their voices filled the old theater again as Kucinich went for the patriotic trifecta:
"America, America, God shed his grace on thee . . ."
For many of those gathered in the theater, Kucinich was the candidate they had been waiting for.
"I was amazed. He had a sense of urgency about the moral questions. . . . Maybe this is a guy who can weave patriotism and our own American nationalism into a progressive idea," said restaurant owner Gene Williams.
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