You wouldn't know Kucinich is last in the polls
Originally published in the Citizen Times
You wouldn't know Kucinich is last in the polls
By Dale Neal, Staff Reporter
April 3, 2004 10:56 p.m.
ASHEVILLE - The race for the Democratic presidential nomination may be over, but Dennis Kucinich isn't giving up his campaign yet.
The diminutive Democrat didn't take the stage Saturday morning when he arrived at City-County Plaza during a weekend sweep through North Carolina. Instead, he took the microphone and walked into the street, eye to eye with a welcoming crowd of some 500 people.
"Sen. Kerry has enough votes to win the nomination, so what are you doing, Dennis?" he asked then answered the obvious question first. "Yeah I can count."
"The direction of the Democratic nomination has been settled, but the direction of the Democratic Party is still to be decided," Kucinich told his supporters.
The Asheville rally was an effort to encourage his voters for the April 17 Democratic caucuses in North Carolina, according to Gayatri Lee, a Kucinich campaign organizer in Asheville. The more votes and delegates Kucinich can muster in the remaining primaries and caucuses will give him leverage at the Boston convention in shaping the Democratic Party platform, she said.
"We have to keep the progressive voice alive and change the Democratic Party," Lee said. "Right now we have a duopoly of political parties. Democrat and Republican parties look alike. The central issue is the corporate takeover of our democracy."
Jay Gertz and Charmaine Strong took an early seat on the curb with their terrier, Merton, to await the candidate's arrival. The environment ranks as the Asheville couple's main concern.
"I've always liked Kucinich even when I knew he didn't have a snowball's chance," Gertz said. "I want to vote for him at the caucus so he can help liberalize the Democratic Party platform."
Like many other Kucinich fans, Gertz and Strong said they won't be voting for the independent Ralph Nader come November.
"We don't want to do anything to throw the vote to Bush," Strong said.
The environment also led Kucinich's lists of concerns, but he quickly linked what he called the nation's lack of a coherent energy policy to the current war in Iraq.
"There's a one-word answer to why we are in Iraq," Kucinich said.
"Oil," the crowd bellowed back.
His campaign continues, Kucinich said, "because I don't want to see us trade a Republican version of the war in Iraq with a Democratic version."
That message came home for Tara Johnson, a stay-at-home mom in Asheville who came downtown to have Kucinich autograph her copy of his book, "A Prayer for America."
"I've never been interested in politics until I heard Dennis speak. He's got the right message for our country and for the world," Johnson said.
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