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Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio

Ockham

Ockham

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MSNBC via Reuters said:
CLEVELAND — Dennis Kucinich, a colorful liberal in Congress who tried to have former President George W. Bush impeached over the Iraq war, was defeated by a fellow Democratic incumbent on Tuesday in the first of 11 primary races this year pitting members of the U.S. House against each other.
Kucinich, 65, lost to Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress, who touted her influence as a senior member of the powerful committee that decides on government spending.
In November, Kaptur will face the winner of the Republican primary -- Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as "Joe the Plumber." He gained national attention in the 2008 presidential race by pressing then-candidate Barack Obama on tax policy.
Kaptur and Kucinich, once friends representing neighboring northern Ohio districts, found themselves competing for the same job when Ohio lost two Congressional seats after the 2010 U.S. Census.
The reshuffling of Ohio voting boundaries by the Republican-dominated state legislature created an oddly-shaped district that stretches along the Lake Erie shore from Toledo to just east of Cleveland, forcing a primary race between the two.
While most attention focused on the Super Tuesday Republican presidential primaries, Ohio also held primary elections for a U.S. Senate seat, all of its members of Congress and local posts.
In the primary on Tuesday, Kaptur won nearly all the vote from her home area of Toledo, and Kucinich was unable to close the gap with votes in his Cleveland base.
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Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio - Business - msnbc.com


Dennis Kucinich, just a short 3 1/2 years ago who ran in the Democratic Primary for President of the United States. While certainly a sometimes inflammatory character in Congress, some in the media are lamenting over his primary loss to Kaptur in Ohio's 9th district. Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win. I just came back from Cleveland OH and though I didn't meet an excessive amount of people there, those who I did speak to did not seem like the average Kucinich supporter. While redistricting may have had a hand in his failed primary bid another hand may be that his progressive style became a bit tired.
 
Poor baby :(
 
Ockham said:
Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio - Business - msnbc.com


Dennis Kucinich, just a short 3 1/2 years ago who ran in the Democratic Primary for President of the United States. While certainly a sometimes inflammatory character in Congress, some in the media are lamenting over his primary loss to Kaptur in Ohio's 9th district. Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win. I just came back from Cleveland OH and though I didn't meet an excessive amount of people there, those who I did speak to did not seem like the average Kucinich supporter. While redistricting may have had a hand in his failed primary bid another hand may be that his progressive style became a bit tired.
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It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy. :(

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-common/mlib/1263/09/1263_1315958341.pdf
 
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the Democrat Party is set up to take a dive:aliens1::aliens3:
 
Kane said:
the Democrat Party is set up to take a dive:aliens1::aliens3:
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Dennis has been called back to the home world. That explains it.
 
Kucinich is a prime example of a too-liberal Democrat. While I applaud him for his stand on Iraq and a few other ideas, that dude was too far off on a lot of issues. Banning handguns? Anti-factory farming? Seriously?

No big loss for the Left.
 
Kandahar said:
It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy. :(

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-common/mlib/1263/09/1263_1315958341.pdf
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Exactly. Marcie Kaptur (Toledo) has represented the 9th district for decades. But Kucinich's 10th district (Cleveland) was basically consolidated with the old 9th district after the Republicans swept the House and took the Governorship of Ohio in 2010. So now, both Toledo and Cleveland are in the same congressional district. And Kucinich is well known for bankrupting Cleveland when he was Mayor many years ago.

So now it is going to be Joe the Plumber vs. Marcy in Ohio's 9th. Unless of course, Kucinich decides to run 3rd party.
 
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I didnt agree with Kucinich on much, but he was honest, believed what he believed, and was more of a liberal loner than a fierce partisan. Kaptur is just a partisan hack. The congress, as hard as this is to believe, just got worse in my opinion.
 
Fletch said:
I didnt agree with Kucinich on much, but he was honest, believed what he believed, and was more of a liberal loner than a fierce partisan. Kaptur is just a partisan hack. The congress, as hard as this is to believe, just got worse in my opinion.
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Reminds me of Santorum...honestly insane.
 
tecoyah said:
Reminds me of Santorum...honestly insane.
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Santorum is not insane, nor is Kucinich. I dont mind people who hold different views than I do so long as they are honest about them. Saqntorum and Kucinich are honest. Most politicians are not.
 
Ockham said:
Liberal Congressman Kucinich defeated in Ohio - Business - msnbc.com


Dennis Kucinich, just a short 3 1/2 years ago who ran in the Democratic Primary for President of the United States. While certainly a sometimes inflammatory character in Congress, some in the media are lamenting over his primary loss to Kaptur in Ohio's 9th district. Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win. I just came back from Cleveland OH and though I didn't meet an excessive amount of people there, those who I did speak to did not seem like the average Kucinich supporter. While redistricting may have had a hand in his failed primary bid another hand may be that his progressive style became a bit tired.
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I don't really see this as a good thing. While Kucinich was extremely liberal, he was also pretty good in regards to civil liberties, and he and Ron Paul had a lot in common in this aspect.

All his loss from Congress means is that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are going to have an easier time shafting everybody who isn't a lobbyist.
 
Kandahar said:
It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy. :(

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-common/mlib/1263/09/1263_1315958341.pdf
Click to expand...

MK is considered a conservative democrat in many circles

Che Kookcinich is a nut in any asylum
 
RadicalModerate said:
Kucinich is a prime example of a too-liberal Democrat. While I applaud him for his stand on Iraq and a few other ideas, that dude was too far off on a lot of issues. Banning handguns? Anti-factory farming? Seriously?
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Factory farming *is* really disgusting and incredibly bad for the environment. But I agree it's here to stay until we have a suitable technological replacement.
 
And the dying breed of honest politician died just a bit more today.
 
Ockham said:
Given that the Democrats completed the redistricting and possibly knew that such a move would make a primary battle for Kucinich tougher than in the past, one wonders if the Dennis had done something or perhaps did not do enough after 16 years in Congress to warrant a primary win.
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A simple mistake? From your article
The reshuffling of Ohio voting boundaries by the Republican-dominated state legislature created an oddly-shaped district that stretches along the Lake Erie shore from Toledo to just east of Cleveland, forcing a primary race between the two.
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I'll start worrying when Joe the Plumber wins the general election. How did he even win the nomination?
 
Kandahar said:
It didn't have much to do with ideology; both Kucinich and Kaptur are very liberal Democrats. It was just the redistricting. If the congressional districts were the same as last time around, both Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur would've easily retained their seats. Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.

This is exactly why we should have a computer program re-draw the congressional districts every 10 years, instead of letting congresspeople do it themselves. This kind of crap is not healthy for our democracy. :(

http://content.clearchannel.com/cc-common/mlib/1263/09/1263_1315958341.pdf
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That's true, but at the same time you could potentially make the same arguments about the original districts that got those two very liberal dems to begin with:

OH09_109.PNG
 
StillBallin75 said:
That's true, but at the same time you could potentially make the same arguments about the original districts that got those two very liberal dems to begin with:

OH09_109.PNG
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Perhaps...although the old districts were at least naturally shaped, and the residencies of both representatives were at least well within the district (whereas the new district has been unnaturally stretched all across Lake Erie specifically to include both of their residencies at either extremity). I don't know if the original map was drawn specifically to protect them, but the old districts look relatively "normal" to me.

As far as I'm concerned, we should just feed the following parameters into a computer and let it draw up the districts: The districts within each state need to have roughly the same number of people, they have to be contiguous if possible, and they have to be as square-shaped as possible. The computer then produces a new map based on those criteria, and let the chips fall where they may. It may not always be pretty, but it's fair.

I think if we did that instead of letting legislators pick their own constituents, we'd see a lot less of the grotesque gerrymandering like we see in Ohio's new 9th district.
 
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Kandahar said:
Factory farming *is* really disgusting and incredibly bad for the environment. But I agree it's here to stay until we have a suitable technological replacement.
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I don't see what's disgusting about it necessarily, but there has been quite a bit of ingenuity in factory farms regarding recycling and preventing waste. It's far from perfect, but some credit.
 
TurtleDude said:
MK is considered a conservative democrat in many circles
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She's an old school, 1960s Democrat, which NOW makes her conservative in some ways . . . but she's a union stooge. I sat in an office with the president of my dad's union and he openly bragged about owning her.
 
Kandahar said:
Look at the map; the new Kaptur/Kucinich district (#9, running across Lake Erie) was obviously created explicitly to force them into a primary battle and get rid of one of them.
Click to expand...

The previous map, posted by SB above, shows the previous version of the district, and it represents the district as it was created to eliminate two Republican seats between Toledo and Cleveland.
 
Harshaw said:
The previous map, posted by SB above, shows the previous version of the district, and it represents the district as it was created to eliminate two Republican seats between Toledo and Cleveland.
Click to expand...

Both parties gerrymander districts on a regular basis whenever and wherever they can get away with it. That's a big part of why Congress has become more polarized, and it's a big reason why we need to have a computer program draw the districts. I think a system like this could work well:

1. Certain parameters are given to a computer program (e.g. equally-sized districts, contiguous districts, square-shaped districts).
2. The program randomly draws up, say, ten different maps.
3. Each party gets to pick four of the ten maps to eliminate.
4. The state's General Assembly selects among the remaining maps.

That would produce something that was relatively unbiased since the parameters would have been set ahead of time. And the fact that each party would get to eliminate maps would produce something that was close to politically neutral (at least in the immediate short term), to avoid a situation where the program draws up a lopsided map purely by chance.
 
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Kandahar said:
Both parties gerrymander districts on a regular basis whenever and wherever they can get away with it. That's a big part of why Congress has become more polarized, and it's a big reason why we need to have a computer program draw the districts.
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I don't disagree. Just providing context.
 
Hikertrash said:
I'll start worrying when Joe the Plumber wins the general election. How did he even win the nomination?
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He was running against an unknown Real Estate agent and barely got the nomination by a 3% margin. (51%-48%)

I live in Ohio's 9th district and can tell you that any Republican usually has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the general election here. This district is a Democrat stronghold, even moreso now that Cleveland is also included the 9th district. However, if Kucinich decides to run as an independent (and he just might, knowing him) that could split the vote on the left and give Joe the Plumber a chance.
 
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