With odds slim, Kucinich focuses on his message

The party's presidential nomination may be all but decided, but Dennis Kucinich says he's staying in the race "to make sure Florida has a real choice."

Kucinich

On the day John Edwards dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, a far lesser-known candidate toured the Tampa Bay area Wednesday promising "to make sure Florida has a real choice" in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio campaigned in Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa the day after he got 9 percent of the vote in his home state, far behind Edwards and apparent nominee John Kerry.

Declaring the race over would be tantamount to stealing another election from Florida, Kucinich told about 40 people at the Word of Life Fellowship Church in St. Petersburg.

"Is it all over? No," Kucinich said. "The convention decides. Not the media, not the power brokers. Florida does have an election next week."

Kucinich compared the campaign to the television show Survivor, but candidates choose to vote themselves off the island. "Let me assure you, the trees will be off the island before I get off the island."

Kucinich told a reporter he would consider making Kerry his running mate because "he seems to have real vote-getting ability."

He was kidding, of course, but his speeches carried an urgent, serious tone.

Kucinich said many people retire from his hometown of Cleveland to Florida but "they can't afford to be sick and they can't afford to be well, because insurance companies make money by not providing health." He said for-profit health care companies have "become an engineer of redistributing the wealth of Americans upward" into the hands of insurance executives.

Supporters who took seats at the Royalty Theater in Clearwater found two pledge cards - one for contributions, and one so people could promise to install energy-efficient light bulbs in their homes.

Fresh off a Super Tuesday showing in which he got 5 percent or less of the Democratic vote in eight states and 17 percent in Minnesota, the slender, dark-haired Kucinich did not attempt to whip the Royalty crowd into a frenzy.

Instead, Kucinich talked about getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, creating a universal health care system and withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.

He criticized what he called President Bush's "decision to take us into an unnecessary war in Iraq" and said the government spends too much on the military and not enough on human needs such as health care.

"We're ending up with a country that's armed to the teeth when our people's teeth are rotting," Kucinich said in one of his biggest applause lines.

Many supporters said they had no illusions about Kucinich's chances of toppling Kerry, but said they believe in his issues and his integrity.

"It'd be great if he got the nomination," said Tom Krumreich, 56, of Tampa, who works for the Florida Consumer Action Network. "But if not, then at least we pushed that agenda."

Joyce Newnam, 48, a sales representative from Brandon, said she likes Kucinich because he was "the only candidate who voted against the Iraq war, which I'm very much against."

The United Nations should help Iraqis with a new constitution and supervise oil production so the United States will not be seen as profiteering, Kucinich said.

Dubbed the "boy mayor" of Cleveland in 1978 when he became the youngest mayor in any major American city, Kucinich gained national attention during a confrontation with the City Council and local banks when he refused to sell the city's utility company. Cleveland went into default, and Kucinich's political career appeared over.

But he was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1994 and to Congress in 1996, campaigning partly on the theme that his decisions with the electric company benefitted the people of Cleveland. Supporter Barbara Nicholson, 72, of Sun City Center said the utility episode showed Kucinich had "sacrificed his career for the good of the people."

Kucinich is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. today to the International Union of Operating Engineers, 10201 E U.S. 92 in Tampa.

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright