Don’t sell a Kucinich candidacy short

Before anyone scoffs at Dennis Kucinich’s bid to become Ohio’s next governor, a few sobering facts come to mind for those who assume that, if Kucinich does make May 8’s Democratic primary ballot, his candidacy would be a side-show to the main event.

Other Democrats seeking to land the gubernatorial nomination in May are former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, of Grove City; Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill, of Chagrin Falls; former state Rep. Connie Pillich, of Cincinnati; and state Sen. Joseph Schiavoni, of suburban Youngstown. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who had also been running, endorsed Cordray on Friday.

For all of Kucinich’s quirks and faults, he is more politically experienced than anyone else seeking to become Ohio’s next governor, although Republican candidate Mike DeWine is a close runner-up in the campaign-experience department.

Second, American, and Ohio, politics these days is the era of the Rattled Cage. If you doubt that, then you’ve never heard of Donald Trump. The combination of immersive media and (very genuine) popular grievances mean that he or she who agitates best, may run best.

Finally, Kucinich has repeatedly rebounded from setbacks that would have doomed other Ohio politicians. Exhibit One: Cleveland’s 1978 default during Kucinich’s mayoralty.

Here’s the glass-halfempty on that: Kucinich fought the utilities and the banks. And the utilities and the banks won — as they almost always do.

But here’s the glass-halffull: Kucinich fought the utilities and the banks, and that’s something an Ohio politician almost never does — a fact brought home to Ohioans every month when they pay utility bills and bank fees. Maybe, in an era of voter insurgency, a Democrat who talks the Old Time Religion — a Democrat such as Kucinich — can attract a mega-church of fellow believers.

Kucinich’s 1982 bid for the Democratic nomination for Ohio secretary of state is maybe telling. (To jump ahead, fellow Democrat Sherrod Brown won the nomination, and that November became secretary of state — and, 36 years later, he’s U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.)

As close as 1982 was to Cleveland’s default, Kucinich was hardly damaged goods. He, Brown and fellow Democrats (and Greater Clevelanders) Anthony Calabrese and Francis (Frank) Gaul competed for the nomination. Brown drew 34 percent of the statewide vote, Kucinich, 27 percent, Calabrese, 24 percent, and Gaul, 15 percent. And Kucinich led the four-candidate field in Lake, Lorain, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Stark, Fairfield and Athens counties. (In Cuyahoga County, Kucinich ran second to Gaul, with Brown third.)

True, on the consumerprotection front, Cordray has a resume that’s hard to beat. And some of Kucinich’s quirks and wrong-headed foreignpolicy statements over the years are plenty embarrassing. But Kucinich wouldn’t be running for class president at a charm school. He’d be seeking votes in a state that is, at best economically stagnant, and which has such shameful socio-economic attainments as this one: The Dispatch reported Jan. 4 that “Ohio continues to have among the highest rates in the nation of black babies dying before their first birthday. Ohio ranked next to last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia with 13.46 deaths for every 1,000 live births to black mothers from 2013 to 2015. That’s more than double the state’s infantmortality rate of 5.76 for babies born to white mothers during the same period, according to [ federal] data.” ( Attention, right- to- life legislators.)

A week from now, Ohio’s potential May primary ballot, Democratic as well as Republican, may yet again have been sifted. The one certainty: If Dennis Kucinich remains part of the mix, Ohio Democrats will have an interesting spring.