Kucinich decides he won't take carpetbag to Washington

[Alberto_Balsalm]

Come January, Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s career in Congress will end.

Ever since losing a member-vs-member primary against Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the Ohio Democrat has been considering a bid in Washington state. Today, he announced that he would step down instead.

“After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress,” Kucinich wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “My commitments to peace, to workers' rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office.”

He added that “this is just the beginning,” and encouraged supporters to sign up for updates from Kucinich.us.

The liberal lawmaker had supporters in Washington who encouraged him to move there and run for one of three open, Democratic-leaning House seats. His 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns attracted a national network of anti-war activists loathe to see him leave the Hill.

But Washington’s Democratic Party was not so welcoming. State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz told the Seattle Times that if Kucinich ran there, he would go down in history as “the narcissist who lost two Congressional races in two states the same year.” A columnist for the paper called him a “carpetbagger.”

Kucinich had to make his decision this week; the filing deadline in Washington was this Friday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...vMUU_blog.html
Good riddance!

[garyd]

No great loss indeed. It means basically two things. He will have to find a real job, and second he figured put that he had no chance in WA.