Kucinich fought power company that caused back out....

[wheresthemind]

This hasn't yet hit the media or the campaign's site, but it was all the buzz today in Minnesota with Dennis here. It so happens that the VERY power company that Dennis fought tooth and nail with over the privatization of the Cleveland Municipal Power Company, was the same one that caused the back outs!

"AS CLEVELAND MAYOR, KUCINICH'S FIGHT TO SAVE PUBLIC POWER:  A Profile in Political Courage...and Vindication

Having been elected to Cleveland?s City Council at age 23, Dennis Kucinich was well-known to Cleveland voters when they chose him as their mayor in 1977 at the age of 31. He was elected mayor on a promise that he would not sell off or privatize the beloved and trusted city-owned power system, even though Cleveland was deeply in debt.

Cleveland Magazine offered this summary: ?Kucinich refused to yield to bankers who gave him a choice: Sell the Municipal Light System to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. or the city will go into default. The mayor said no.?

When Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light, the banks took the unprecedented step of refusing to roll over the city?s debt, as is customary. Instead, they pushed the city into default. It turned out the banks were thoroughly interlocked with the private utility, CEI, which would have acquired monopoly status by taking over Muny Light. Five of the six banks held almost 1.8 million shares of CEI stock; of the 11 directors of CEI, eight were also directors of four of the six banks involved.

By holding to his campaign promise and putting principle above politics, he lost his re-election bid and his political career was derailed. But today Kucinich stands vindicated for having confronted the Enron of his day, and for saving the municipal power company. ?There is little debate,? wrote Cleveland Magazine in May 1996, ?over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI.?

When Kucinich re-launched his political career in the mid-1990s, it was on the strength of having saved public power. His campaign symbol was a light bulb. ?Because he was right!? was his campaign slogan when he won his seat in the state senate in 1994. The slogan that sent him to Washington two years later was ?Light Up Congress.?

In 1998, the Cleveland City Council issued a commendation to Dennis Kucinich for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system.""

-http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_publicpower.htm

"FirstEnergy, a power company that provides electricity to 1.4 million customers in Ohio, said in a statement Saturday that some of its lines failed before the blackout and that an alarm system did not signal a problem."

-http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/16/power.outage/index.html


I hope he spreads this FAR and WIDE!

[WCGreen]

1. I as there when it happened,. just having started out in

politics. It was almost like that except DK had upset the powers that be and they were forcing the issue to prove they were powerful and that no upstart 23 year old was going to put a monkey wrench in their whole plan for the city of Cleveland.

Well, DK hadn't really thought it out. The Muni plant was under EPA sanction and the people still hooked up to the system were experiencing power outages left and right.

But DK stood his ground and actually the outcome of that particular fight set in motion the whole idea of power companies as brokers and not as producers.

They shut down Cleveland Power, the plant, and CPP became one of the first to hit the open market for power....

It was a landmark fight but it wasn't all that DK or Cleveland Magazine put it up to be.

It was about power, political not electical, and a fight between who actually ran the city. And as Clevelanders will attest to this day, the Brok Weirs of the city still have the upper hand......

[wheresthemind]

2. Dennis rocks

Indeed... Go Dennis!

This is the kinda man we need in the white house!

People should realize that stuff like this black out would've never happened had Dennis been in charge doing things like he did as mayor....


alright I'm getting incoherent

[aquart]

3. Okay, this weighs with me. Big time.

[wheresthemind]

4. good to hear it

I'm sure that many of the people affected by the blackouts would love to hear of Dennis's battles with the corporate energy machine that caused them!!