Seeker
Member
the Story
Democratic Rep. Kucinich to Run for President
Mon Feb 17, 9:00 PM ET Add Politics - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By John Whitesides
ALTOONA, Iowa (Reuters) - Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, one of the strongest voices in Congress against war in Iraq, said on Monday he would enter the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
Kucinich, co-leader of the Progressive Caucus that includes the most liberal members of the House of Representatives, told a gathering of Iowa labor leaders he would file papers on Tuesday to create a committee to raise money for a presidential bid.
Stressing a populist economic agenda that includes universal health care, repeal of the North American Free Trade Agreement and elimination of President Bush (news - web sites)'s tax cuts, Kucinich said he would be a "people's president."
He said Bush had failed to make the case for war with Iraq. "This war is wrong," he told an Iowa AFL-CIO conference.
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, the first black woman elected to the Senate but a loser in her 1998 re-election bid, also plans to launch a presidential campaign committee on Tuesday, bringing to eight the number of Democratic contenders vying for the right to challenge Bush in 2004.
Kucinich and Moseley-Braun are long-shot entries in a Democratic field that could expand even more, with Florida Sen. Bob Graham, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, former senator Gary Hart and retired general Wesley Clark also pondering bids.
The 56-year-old Kucinich spent four controversial years as mayor of Cleveland, presiding over the city's collapse into financial ruin. He made a political comeback as an Ohio state senator and won election to the U.S. House in 1996.
He is the only member of Congress in the race for president to have voted against the resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. Graham, who is expected to enter the contest within the next few weeks, also voted against it.
Kucinich has been a pro-labor representative and pledged solidarity with the Iowa labor leaders gathered in a suburb of Des Moines for the state's AFL-CIO legislative conference, saying he would preside over a "people's White House."
While a long-shot to win the nomination, he hopes to rally support from the Democratic Party's antiwar activists and push populist issues that might otherwise be submerged on the campaign agenda.
He has already won praise from Ralph Nader (news - web sites), the Green Party presidential candidate in 2000, who says the presidential field needs a progressive candidate.
