Kucinich visits Utah today in bid for votes
Originally published in the Salt Lake Tribune
Kucinich visits Utah today in bid for votes
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, still grasping for delegates in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, will drop by Utah today to stump for votes two days before the state's primary.
In a change of plans, Kucinich will make a brief stop at Salt Lake City International Airport for a rally and news conference this morning. It will be his second trip to Utah since his announcement last year.
Kucinich is the only current candidate planning to visit Utah before the primary. Front-runner Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and hopeful North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are focusing their campaigns on the more populous states in the Super Tuesday contest on March 2.
Kucinich remains upbeat that he can take the White House this year, and he says even Republican-dominated Utah should take interest in his message.
"The people in Utah who are worried and concerned about the economy, about how the wealth keeps going in the hands of a few, who are concerned about their health care, their education, who are concerned about trade that takes jobs out of this country, who are concerned about war, you know, my candidacy gives them a chance to go in a new direction," Kucinich told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday.
Kucinich -- who opposed the Iraqi war and is promoting a Department of Peace and global nuclear disarmament -- says the nation needs a new focus.
"It's increasingly becoming about war and about the militarization of our society and our priorities. It's moving away from protection of basic civil liberties. We're becoming something profoundly undemocratic," he said. "Utah can help take America in another direction."
As for the Kerry campaign, Oregon Rep. Early Blumenauer was in Salt Lake City last week as a stand-in for the candidate and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros is to speak at the Democrats' Jefferson-Jackson Blue Jean Bash fund-raiser Monday.
The Kucinich campaign will also have a surrogate at that event: Mimi Kennedy, who plays Abby on the syndicated "Dharma and Greg" show. As for Edwards, his campaign bus drove through the southern part of the state on Friday en route for Los Angeles. The candidate was not aboard.
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