Does anyone have a good, informative link to the Muni Power bankruptcy?

[aldian159]

I need information on the Muni Power scandal, and how Dennis Kucinich handled it. Any information would be helpful, be it testimonials from Clevelanders, or links to good information.

Thanks in advance.

[JohnnyRingo]

1. Yes...He's a working class hero

This Rolling Stone interview was always one of my favorites:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5938705

It seemed at the time that he was on his way to becoming a working-class Kennedy. But within eighteen months, Kucinich became associated not with glamorous political ascent but with young-man-in-a-hurry overreaching and Rust Belt futility. Kucinich, the self-styled scourge of "greedy corporate bloodsuckers," had staked his mayoralty on a battle for control of Cleveland's city-owned Municipal Light Company. When a private utility tried to force the city into selling Muni Light, Kucinich refused. Boy mayors weren't supposed to act this way. Cleveland's big banks, in cahoots with the private utility, called in the city's loans, forcing Cleveland into default. In 1979, Kucinich lost his bid for re-election.

http://www.vegsource.com/articles/kucinich_photos.htm

Arianna Huffington listened as LA Times columnist Robert Scheer
described Kucinich's decision when he was mayor of Cleveland
to refuse to sell the public ultility, the Cleveland the municipal
utility (Muni-light), though it was not losing money.
It's sale was required by the bank to avoid a "paper bankruptcy"
-- and many of the bank's board of directors were also on the private utilities
board of directors -- and Muni-light kept rates low and served
as the only competition in the area. Local banks forced the city
into a paper bankruptcy for Kucinich's refusal to sell the electric utility.

The episode cost Dennis his reelection, but a few years later the
Cleveland Plains ran a headline: "Dennis Was Right" because Cleveland
was one of the few cities in American that had not fallen under
the gouging grip of power companies (like Enron), but was
able to continue providing cheap electricity to its citizens.

[aldian159]

2. Incredible...Thanks a lot.