Dennis Kucinich needs your help. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is gunning for him.

[Kolesar]

They endorsed Joe Cimperman, a combative, attention-grabbing city councilman from Cleveland. The PD even admits Cimperman is underqualified.

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1201339966221760.xml&coll=2

You could fund his campaign, and if you have any friends in his Ohio district, please call them and tell them to vote for Dennis and not stay at home.

I *think* this is his offical site: http://www.kucinich.us/

[geiger]

1. right o

[Kolesar]

2. Kucinich 55%, Cimperman 29%

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=272x1258#1263

[FREEWILL56]

6. You post on the link to the other thread that DK is safe for reelection.

There's no such thing as safe and that may encourage some to stay home thinking he will be reelected by your saying something like that. I am not in his district as I'm from W. Pa., but I don't want to see the man be punished for doing what is right. If he ever gets too discouraged with Cleveland, he is certainly welcome here as far as I'm concerned. When Dennis was more or less forced to resign his presidential efforts, I knew we were screwed with the other choices as it is just a matter of how much for each choice. I love my country, but I feel it is no longer as it should be because of the attitudes of a majority of Americans. Yes, I mean a majority because I have to include all of the idiots that not only vote republican, but those that don't even care enough to vote as well. Too much laziness, greed(includes power and $), and stupidity in this country. Don't nobody tell me to leave if I don't like it either as it may come to the point of revolving if you know what I mean.

[Kolesar]

7. That was the title on their press release

I would note that Cimperman's TV ads suffer on account of being almost entirely negative. Did I say "suffer"? No, make that "suck".

[FREEWILL56]

11. Ok, sorry I missunderstood as I thought those were your words.

:pals:

[MeDeMax]

8. I agree, Dennis is being scapegoated by his opponents

He is an educated and well informed man that speaks with great clarity of mind.

While I don't blame his opponents for trying, they saw an opportunity to target him and are using it.

He has shown unwavering support for gay-marriage, environmental issues and he has been steadfast in his opposition to the war.

He is a Gulliver of progressive liberal thinking, running against greedy lilliputs :-)

Please support Dennis with your votes and $$$.

[Hilliard_Dem]

3. Seems like they just want to punish DK for his presidential bids

I don't know anything about this Cimperman (I'm in central Ohio), but almost the entire two-page article was about Kucinich. What they say about Cimperman is pretty tepid and generic:

"it's Cimperman who stands out as both the strongest challenger and the most promising lawmaker.

Even after a decade of representing the city's most diverse ward, the 37-year-old Cleveland native retains much of his boundless energy and idealism. Yet he's also pragmatic and willing both to admit mistakes and to learn from them. Constituents know that when Cimperman goes to bat for them, he'll use every tool to get the job done.

Just think what it would be like to have a congressman with such zeal - a representative who would devote every day to revitalizing Greater Cleveland."


I also noticed this line:

"We endorsed Ferris two years {ago}, hoping that might get Kucinich to focus on Westlake instead of the White House. But despite her obvious fire to serve, she simply doesn't stand out in this year's field."

Silly me, I thought the point of an endorsement was to name the candidate you think would do the best job, not to send a message to the incumbent candidate. Are they just going to endorse a different person every year regardless of qualifications until they find one who can beat Kucinich?

[Kolesar]

4. Dennis is too liberal for the newspaper with the coal and electricity company bias

Well, there's my take on it. The Plain Dealer even had Senator Voinovich writing op eds explaining why the federal government should not further regulate mercury emissions from coal fired power plants. Mercury is present in coal. Power plants would have to spend money to refit mercury precipitation apparatus on the exhaust stacks.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hooraydems06]

9. Anyone got any information about the results yet?

[hooraydems06]

10. Some blogger is reporting that

Kucinich has won. Not sure what he's basing this on, as the official numbers show only 22 of 641 precincts have reported. Guess he knows something we don't. I have been talking to someone who says his cousin works with the Kucinich campaign, and that he would know by 10 who won, so I'm assuming that others can access the same kind of information. I had a good feeling that Kucinich would make it, as well, so there's no real reason to doubt the information, but if you want you can always hold on for official word.

[Kolesar]

12. Snotty Peedee thinks they know better

West Side Democrats have again nominated Dennis Kucinich, now they need to help keep his attention where it belongs

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Democrats in the 10th Congressional District once again embraced Dennis Kucinich Tuesday, but by a substantially lower margin than ever before. Maybe they are hoping -- as are we -- this will convince Kucinich that he needs to regain his old focus on the needs of the people in his district and throughout Greater Cleveland.

Kucinich has spent much of the time since Jan. 25 -- when he finally folded his second, predictably fruitless bid for the presidency -- trying to convince voters on the West Side of Cleveland and its western suburbs that they'd never been far from his mind. Even when he was stumping in Iowa and New Hampshire. Or raising money in Los Angeles and New York. Or hobnobbing with the president of Syria. Apparently enough Democrats believed him to propel Kucinich into the November general election, where former State Rep. Jim Trakas, the newly minted Republican nominee, will stand between him and a seventh term in Washington.

But even the voters who bought Kucinich's line ought to take a moment today to thank Barbara Anne Ferris, Thomas O'Grady, Rosemary Palmer and especially Joe Cimperman for grabbing the incumbent's attention. In 2004, when Kucinich faced only token opposition in his congressional primary, he kept his potemkin presidential campaign going until just before the Democratic convention.

This year, thanks to the efforts of four challengers and the size of Cimperman's war chest, Kucinich had to pull the plug early on his fantasy. He had to start showing up on Capitol Hill -- where he hasn't missed a roll call since Jan. 15 -- and to make the rounds back home, where even some longtime supporters had warned Kucinich that folks were growing weary of his act.

So Kucinich turned his still-substantial energies homeward. He ginned up his fund-raising machine, with over-wrought cries that the corporate elite was out to silence him. While whining about others trying to buy the race, Kucinich raised and spent more money than Cimperman -- perhaps more than all his opponents combined.

Now it is up to those who voted for Kucinich to hold his feet to the fire. To make sure he becomes an active participant in developing realistic plans to revitalize this region's economy -- and then mobilizes needed congressional help. To let him know that it's time he moved beyond pie-in-the-sky and started working on legislation that might actually pass and make a difference to the people he says he still wants to serve. To remind him to deliver for the people and the city that shaped him.

Having Trakas, another worthy challenger, in the wings should help. But ultimately it is Kucinich himself who needs to rededicate himself to the job he's held for the past 12 years, not the one he'll never get.

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1204709583137420.xml&coll=2