New Hampshire voters show curious interest in Kucinich
Originally published in the San Jose Mercury News
Posted on Fri, Jan. 23, 2004
New Hampshire voters show curious interest in Kucinich
By CARL CHANCELLOR
Knight Ridder Newspapers
DURHAM, N.H. - Students trudging along the frigid University of New Hampshire commons did a double take Thursday as a gear-grinding bus with a psychedelic paint job belched its way across campus.
The bus was so awash in an eye-assaulting blur of colorful images that it was hard to discern the lettering proclaiming "Kucinich for President," just as it has been difficult for many on this New England campus to get to know Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich amid all the attention paid to his Democratic rivals for the presidential nomination.
Freshman Lisa Landry, 19, said she came to the university's Memorial Union to learn more about Kucinich; she was mainly aware of his anti-Iraq-war stance. Several other students in the crowded dining area said they hadn't heard much about him. One girl asked a friend how his name is pronounced.
Still, it was hard to overlook Kucinich on this day, not just because he may have been the only person in the dining hall wearing a suit, but because his lunchtime arrival was announced by a man in a jester's cap banging a drum made from a 55-gallon white plastic barrel.
Kucinich is nothing if not unique.
"He's different from what I was used to with politicians. He comes out with where he's at. I feel I can trust him," said Dylan Huber, 31, who drove the campaign bus, which runs on biodegradable, nontoxic fuel.
Sponsored by the Democreation Project, a youth-founded effort to unite young artists and political progressives, the bus is a touring piece of art aimed at spreading the Kucinich message of bringing the troops home from Iraq, repealing the USA Patriot Act, changing trade policy and providing universal health care, environmental protection and free college education.
Dan Nelson, a co-founder of the Democreation Project, said he was drawn by Kucinich's "combination of solid progressive values with a refined, even mystical, ethicality that makes him unique among politicians."
Kucinich, who received slightly more than 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses Monday, said he hadn't changed anything ahead of next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. "The campaign has not changed since Iowa in any way," he said. "The platform has not changed."
He bristles at any suggestion that the deal he cut with North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, in which they agreed to move caucusers to each other's camps in precincts where one or the other didn't have enough support to be viable, was a first step toward dropping out of the race and endorsing Edwards.
"What we agreed on is we both wanted more delegates in Iowa," Kucinich said.
During Thursday night's Democratic candidates' debate in New Hampshire, Kucinich didn't stray from the script he's followed since announcing his campaign. He hammered away at President Bush's tax cuts, the administration's Iraq policy, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, and at manufacturing-job losses.
David Swanson, Kucinich's press director, has made it no secret that the campaign is unhappy about what it claims is the media's penchant for ignoring the Ohio congressman. "There was an almost total news blackout on the campaign in the week before Iowa," he complained.
While not making any predictions about Tuesday's vote, Swanson vowed that Kucinich is in the race for the long run.
"Dennis expects to move up 49 times and win the nomination at the convention. ... We expect to win despite the media and bring the media along eventually," he said.
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