2/24/2004

From Boy Mayor to Democratic primaries

Grace Dobush
Daily Kent Stater

Some called him Dennis the Menace, the Boy Mayor of the Mistake on the Lake.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has a long history in Cleveland.

Born in 1946 to a working-class family, Kucinich began his political career by running for Cleveland City Council before most Kent State students were born.

It was also before he could vote.

In 1967 the voting age was 21, and Kucinich, a sophomore at Cleveland State, was 20.

He lost that race but won in 1969, becoming the youngest councilman in Cleveland’s history.

Eight years later at the age of 31, he became the youngest mayor in Cleveland’s history and the youngest big-city mayor in the United States.

This is when his notoriety began.

After firing the Cleveland chief of police, a recall movement began. The Cleveland Plain Dealer supported the recall of Kucinich as mayor, but he was able to maintain his position by a margin of 236 votes.

A main focus of Kucinich’s mayoral campaign had been saving the Municipal Light Plant. Muny Light, as it was called, was set to be sold off to pay the city’s debts. Kucinich opposed the privatization of the plant and refused the sale, which sent the city into default — the first major city in the United States to do so since the Depression.

Tim Hagan, who is running for Cuyahoga County Commissioner and held that seat for more than a decade, was the Cuyahoga County Democratic chairman when Kucinich was mayor.

Hagan met Kucinich for the first time in 1972 when Kucinich was a Cleveland City councilman.

“He’s matured greatly, as we all have,” Hagan said in a phone interview last week. “He’s a little more reflective now and probably an important voice in Congress.”

At one point during the recall movement, The Plain Dealer reported that Hagan accused Kucinich of planting a police spy at a party event.

“There was, in my view, a misuse of police,” Hagan said. But “all was soon forgiven and forgotten.”

The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party didn’t support Kucinich for mayor.

“It was a pretty destructive time in the city’s history,” Hagan said. “He was lucky to survive that recall.”

But Kucinich was not lucky enough to win his re-election campaign in 1979. With the recall still fresh in the minds of voters, George Voinovich, then Ohio’s lieutenant governor and current U.S. senator, beat Kucinich, making him the youngest big city ex-mayor.

After losing the re-election, Kucinich withdrew from the public eye and had difficulty finding a job — the declared income on his 1982 tax return was $38.

In the 1990s, however, it was shown that not selling Muny Light, now known as Cleveland Public Power, saved consumers in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1994, using a light bulb as the focus of his campaign, Kucinich came back and won a seat in the Ohio Senate.

Vernon Sykes, assistant professor of political science, had some exposure to Kucinich in the Ohio state legislature. Sykes represented Akron in the Ohio House of Representative for 17 years.

“Kucinich is a strong advocate for working men and women in the state and in the country,” Sykes said. “He is not bashful or shy on his positions. He always challenges the system and the status quo.”

Sykes said Kucinich has high name recognition in Ohio because it’s his home state, but the negative recognition makes for a major problem.

“That’s mostly attributed to his maverick style,” Sykes said. “He challenged the established leaders, and they had their own following. When he attacked them, he became vulnerable.”

Sykes said Kucinich is a good politician because of his attitude.

“I think he believes he has a chance, and that his chance is maximized by his own attitude,” he said.

Sykes isn’t surprised that Kucinich has stuck with his campaign for this long and predicts that he will stay on through the Ohio primary.

“He won’t know his potential until he hits his home state,” Sykes said. “After the Ohio primary, he may reconsider.”

Kucinich has attracted the support of many celebrities and politicians, but as far as delegates to the Democratic National Convention go, Kucinich has not won any through primaries or caucuses so far. He does have two super delegates, which are elected officials and party activists who may vote at the convention for whomever they choose. His two super delegates are Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and himself.

Alongside his current campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Kucinich is also looking to keep the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that he’s held since 1997.

And he still uses the light bulb in his campaign.