http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/dick_feagler/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1201944745154830.xml&coll=2Sunday, February 03, 2008
Dick Feagler
Plain Dealer Columnist
I'm going to vote to send Dennis Kucinich back to Congress. Lord knows we need somebody there who speaks his mind and doesn't suck up to the establishment. Dennis says what Dennis thinks. And a lot of what Dennis thinks is what I think. So he's got my vote.
I think this war is terrible. And so does Dennis. He told me that's why he ran.
"After the last election, the Democrats were elected to stop the war," he said. "After attending some Democratic meetings, I learned that the party wasn't going to stop it. They were going tkeep funding it. That's why I decided to run."
Somewhere, the war got lost in the beauty contest of this preposterous "American Idol" version of democracy. Everybody yawns at the fact that we still are at war...
http://www.plainpress.org/html/stories/2008-01/lettertotheeditor0108.htmLetter to the Editor
Reader questions Plain Dealer’s quick endorsement of Cimperman
To the editor:
Editor’s Note: This letter from a resident of the 10th Congressional District was originally submitted to the Plain Dealer. Due to the Plain Dealer’s refused to publish the letter, the Plain Press offered a space for the author to voice his concerns.
Dear Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg
Plain Dealer Politics Writer Mark Naymik again slants his reporting against Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a true populist and progressive. In his December 4 story, Naymik boosts the candidacy of Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who is running for Congress against Kucinich, by falsely claiming that Cimperman is an advocate for the poor and a "populist"...
http://www.cleveland.com/letters/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1201685885303840.xml&coll=2oe Cimperman endorsement elicits strong reaction
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Joe Cimperman's very public claims that Congressman Dennis Kucinich is a "part-time representative" do not jibe with the facts. During the current Congress, Kucinich has voted 89 percent of the time. Perhaps Cimperman was confusing Kucinich with Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, who have only voted 76 percent and 62 percent of the time, respectively. Over his career, Kucinich has shown up to vote 95 percent of the time, which is far better than most representatives and senators.
Cimperman should drop this argument. I am left to conclude that he is confused, either morally or intellectually.
Andrew Magrath, Alliance
The withdrawal of Dennis Kucinich from the presi dential race proves that anyone who threatens the status quo will be marginalized by the media and drummed out of the running. The media did their best to portray Kucinich as a buffoon.
Kucinich advocated: ending the war in Iraq; withdrawing from trade agreements like NAFTA; impeaching the vice president; and putting our tax money into education, jobs and green energy. He proposed a WPA-type program to rebuild America's crumbing infrastructure. He proposed a "green" plan that would have created millions of jobs designing, manufacturing, installing and retrofitting wind and solar microtechnologies. Both programs would have created a full-employment economy and benefited the environment. Perhaps most threatening of all to insurance companies (heavy contributors to candidates), he proposed single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health coverage. What's so crazy about that? Why would such a candidate have to fight to be included in presidential debates?
Lesley Woodward
Cleveland Heights
http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/39/fives-a-crowdFive's A Crowd
There Are Four Contenders For Dennis Kucinich’s Congressional Seat. Do Any Of Them Stand A Chance? Do Any Of Them Deserve It?
By Anastasia Pantsios
...But he'd made his way back on Jan. 9, when more than 150 supporters gathered at Laborers Hall on Prospect and E. 32nd to help him officially kick off his latest congressional campaign. Waving their yellow "Dennis!" signs, they cheered him and his lanky red-headed wife Elizabeth on stage where he was joined by more than 40 union representatives and fellow politicians, including State Sen. Dale Miller and Cleveland City Councilman Jay Westbrook. Kucinich brought down the house when he connected the cost of the Iraq war to the fortunes of the 10th District, citing the district's share of the cost and what could have been done with the money to pay for education or health care, and reminding listeners how powerful he could be and how well he connects with the blue-collar denizens of his district and their everyday concerns. Planted stage left, Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair Jimmy Dimora nodded his head, a clear show of party support for the incumbent...
It's possible that Cimperman's attack ads and the PD's attack editorial could backfire. Kucinich supporters are notoriously passionate and seem energized by the idea that everyone's against them. The PD claimed it did not "come to this conclusion lightly" that Kucinich should be replaced, but its consistent opposition to Kucinich (it endorsed Ferris in 2006) has made it an enemy with the congressman's supporters. Enemies, as Bush's constant evocation of "the terr'ists" shows, can make good rallying points...
Evan Coaker, a North Olmsted resident, says much the same thing. "Dennis has done a good job for the district. Those Cimperman commercials are all negative. Why should I vote for him? He doesn't say."
It's that sort of support, whether from party insiders like Miller and Dimora, activists like LaRosa and Evans, or just engaged voters like Coaker, that primary victories, which attract the most motivated voters, hinge on. Kucinich has it. Palmer's been building such a grassroots campaign for seven months, and Ferris and O'Grady have support based on their previous work in the district. Cimperman, who didn't return calls for comment, has his attack ads, his war chest of unknown provenance and the adoration of the Plain Dealer. Only one will be left standing when the dust settles on the March 4 primary.
Cimperman is the big-fund raiser in the 10th Congressional District campaign
Posted by Molly Kavanaugh January 31, 2008 19:07PM
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/01/molly_kavanaugh.htmlCleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman raised nearly five times the money that incumbent Dennis Kucinich raised in the 10th Congressional District race, according to financial disclosure reports filed Thursday.
Kucinich, who has spent the past year running for president, raised a total of just $47,000 -- a third of which was raised in the last three months of 2007...
Most of Cimperman's $228,000 in contributions came from lawyers, developers, bankers and business associates. Forest City Enterprises Ratner family contributed $11,000 and the Ohio Savings Bank-affiliated Goldberg family gave $13,800.
About 40 people gave Cimperman the maximum amount of $2,300, including Scott Wolstein, head of Developers Diversified Realty Corp. and lead developer of the Flats East Bank neighborhood, Legacy Village developer Mitch Schneider, event promoter Mike Belkin and Republican investor Jeff Jacobs...
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/4433Joe Cimperman Fudges Numbers in Race Against Kucinich
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/4433Submitted by Eugmc on January 28, 2008 - 2:47pm.
Callahan’s Cleveland Diary (
http://www.callahansclevelanddiary.com/?p=474 ) discovered something that the Joe Cimperman campaign probably wishes it hadn't. Cimperman has long stated the reason he is running for Dennis Kucinich's seat in the 10th Congressional District in Ohio (a place where Cimperman does not even reside) is the fact that Kucinich is an absentee Congressman. Well, Callahan’s Cleveland Diary showed that reasoning doesn't not pass the litmus test...
Considering that Cimperman lives in Tubbs-Jones 11th District, and the only thing he has been running on is Kucinich missing votes - can someone explain Cimperman's real motivation in this election?
More troubling is the fact that Cimperman conveys a flat out lie in the advertisement. The clip in the piece clearly shows that Kucinich missed "over 300 votes" in Congress when the fact is that he missed 139. And to think that Cimperman states "I approve this message" at the end of the advert. What else would he approve without first checking the facts if he was elected to represent the people of Cleveland in Congress?
Kucinich missing votes while campaigning for a higher office is understandable (Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo,and Ron Paul who are the other members of Congress that were running for President all had higher rates of missing votes)...
http://www.kucinich.us/
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