UPFRONT NEWS
Dennis! Kucinich joins the clown car. Photo by Sam Allard
Dennis! Kucinich Declares for Cleveland Mayoral Race
TWO DAYS BEFORE THE filing deadline and months after the rumors began, former mayor, congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich declared for the 2021 Cleveland Mayoral race. Standing before the script Cleveland sign in Tremont – where, Kucinich reminisced, it all began – Kucinich said that the city of Cleveland needed both a “steady, experienced hand” and a leader with “bold, visionary ideas” as it emerges from the pandemic and a period of sustained violence and poverty. The particulars of his platform will be released in detail in the coming weeks. But Monday,
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Kucinich chose to focus on what he said was the most pressing issue in Cleveland today: safety. On that topic, Kucinich’s stance was qualified, striking a balance between pro- and anti-police factions locally. We must support the police who risk their lives every day on the one hand, he said, but “question police and take appropriate disciplinary action” when they violate internal rules or breach civil rights. Kucinich said that the moping by current leaders about violence was no solution. Action is required. He pledged to hire 400 new police officers and 100 new police assistants to be more responsive to crime. He also wants to create
| clevescene.com | June 16-29, 2021
a “Civic Peace Department” and launch a nonviolence curriculum in the Cleveland schools – a variation on a proposal he dreamed up 20 years ago in congress – which he said would address all forms of violence in Cleveland. Kucinich was the youngest mayor in Cleveland’s history, serving from 1977 to 1979 during a tumultuous era in which he famously refused to privatize the Municipal Light and Electric Company, now CPP, under immense personal and political pressure. If elected, Kucinich would become the city’s oldest mayor. He is exactly four days younger than Mayor Frank Jackson. Kucinich’s current campaign
hashtag, #LightUpCleveland, is a reference both to his Muny Light history, his plan to literally brighten streets with brighter streetlights, and his view on the city’s need for an attitude adjustment. “I am ready from day one to take the city in a new, upbeat, can-do direction,” he said. When asked what took him so long to formally declare his candidacy, he said, “It’s right on time.” A recent Baldwin-Wallace poll found that Kucinich enjoys more name recognition than any other candidate in the race. Elsewhere on the mayoral beat, candidates Sandra Williams, Zack Reed and Justin Bibb filed their
