Underdog Kucinich campaigns philosophy: 'anything is possible'
Originally published by Knight-Ridder
Posted on Tue, Jan. 06, 2004
Underdog Kucinich campaigns philosophy: `anything is possible'
By Carl Chancellor
Knight Ridder Newspapers
AKRON, Ohio - Time changes everything.
Twenty-six years ago Dennis Kucinich was a rising star. In 1978 the national spotlight shone brightly on the media-dubbed "Boy Mayor," who was sworn in at age 31 as mayor of Cleveland. He was one of the youngest people ever to lead a major city.
But as quickly as he rose, the political meteor that was Kucinich crashed and burned.
The media lights turned harsh as Cleveland slipped into default, the direct result of Kucinich's constant battles with the city's major banks and business interests. It was Kucinich's staunch refusal to sell Cleveland's municipal light system to a private company that led to his downfall.
Within a few months of his election, Kucinich and Cleveland had become national jokes. Rechristened "Dennis the Menace," he became the target of public outrage, political vendettas and, according to an FBI report, a Mafia hit man.
His decision to stick with his campaign promise not to sell the municipal electric plant led to a recall vote that Kucinich barely survived. His victory was short-lived. A few months later, after serving just two years, he lost his bid for re-election, his political career derailed.
So it was more than ironic that on a chilly Monday in mid-December, Kucinich, the four-term Democratic Ohio congressman, held a news conference on the plaza of San Francisco's Embarcadero Center to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his stand against corporate power.
Time had changed things.
In 1978 Kucinich faced a tough choice: either sell the small city-owned light company, Cleveland Electric Light Plant (Muny Light for short), to the huge, private Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. or watch the city banks refuse to roll over $14 million in short-term debt.
Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light, believing that giving CEI a monopoly wouldn't be good for city residents. In December 1978, Cleveland went into default, the first American city to do so since the Depression. The city was unable to borrow after New York bond-rating companies drastically lowered Cleveland's rating.
In 1979 Kucinich asked voters to raise the city's income tax by 0.5 percent to save Muny Light and restructure the debt. Cleveland voters backed their boy mayor 2-1. Yet Kucinich left the city more than $120 million in debt when he was voted out of office in November 1979.
In the 1990s, Muny Light (now Cleveland Public Power) was still city-owned, and it had expanded. The utility had saved its customers more than $200 million over the years, compared with what they would have spent had the power company fallen into private hands. Kucinich was honored in 1998 by the Cleveland City Council for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
Today, Kucinich's presidential campaign slogan is "Light Up America." Its symbol is a light bulb. Kucinich said he's running for president because he wants to bring workers' rights, fair trade policies and common sense back to the Democratic Party.
For the last two years, Kucinich has crisscrossed the country spreading his eclectic brand of liberal, populist, pro-environment, antiwar, working-class politics. He promises to preserve Social Security, establish a national health care system, cancel NAFTA and dramatically increase unemployment benefits. Kucinich has said repeatedly that he plans to follow a path blazed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "to make sure that government serves the people, not the corporations."
He wears his liberal label proudly and chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is composed of 54 of the most liberal members of Congress.
All of 140 pounds draped on a 5-foot-7-inch frame, thanks to his strict vegan diet, Kucinich, at 57, still has a boyish air about him, a wide-eyed, high-energy, roll-up-the-sleeves enthusiasm that sustains his "anything is possible" personality.
The son of a truck driver and the oldest of seven children, Kucinich is proud of his hard-scrabble formative years growing up in the ethnically and racially diverse city neighborhoods of Cleveland.
"We lived in 21 different places, including several cars, by the time I was 17," said Kucinich, who calls his childhood the foundation of his "holistic worldview."
His political career began when he was elected to the Cleveland City Council in 1969 as a 23-year-old college student attending Cleveland State. Later, he attended Case Western Reserve, where he graduated with degrees in speech and communications in 1973.
"Because I'm a true child of the inner city, I have a passion and a willingness to take a stand, to take a position. I'm willing to speak out," he said.
Kucinich has been the loudest and most persistent voice against a war in Iraq, even more than former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Dean had favored one unsuccessful congressional formula for qualified backing of the war, and he says that since U.S. troops are there, they must not be withdrawn precipitously. Kucinich says simply: "Get the U.S. out and the U.N. in."
He's also been sharply critical of the Bush administration's economic policies. Kucinich said he senses that there is an "unarticulated consciousness" in the country just waiting to be heard.
"I want to be that spokesperson," Kucinich said.
A follower of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Kucinich is pushing hard for the creation of a Department of Peace. "A government puts things considered priorities in departments. We have the department of defense, education, agriculture … of equal importance should be peace."
That Kucinich is standing onstage with other presidential contenders is almost inconceivable to many. When his political life fell apart, Kucinich's personal life followed suit, including a divorce. He had difficulty finding a job.
It would be almost 15 years before he would again win an election. Ironically, Kucinich's political life was resurrected by the same issue that had buried it years earlier - Muny Light. He cited the light plant's success over the years to springboard himself into the Ohio Senate in 1994. Two years later, he defeated a Republican U.S. House incumbent for a congressional seat.
He spends almost nothing on television and radio ads, relying instead on grass-roots, door-to-door campaigning, a sea of yard signs and a nonstop public appearance schedule.
During an interview in his congressional office, Kucinich turned in his chair to look at the Washington Monument framed in his office window.
"I believe I can change any outcome," he said.
He rose and retrieved a leather-bound script of "Man of La Mancha" from a bookcase.
"It's a signed, working script from the original 1965 Broadway production," he said, delightedly, explaining the play about the quest of the noble knight Don Quixote "to right the unrightable wrongs."
So would Kucinich, who has time and again overcome great odds, consider his quest for the presidency an impossible dream?
"When I'm told that I can't do something, I see other possibilities," he said. "If you apply creativity to a situation you can change the outcome. … My approach to life is that anything is possible."
Subscribe to this blog's feed