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| Joined: | Mon Nov 21st, 2005 |
| Location: | California USA |
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Mayor of Cleveland
Anyone who takes the time to read the history of Cleveland while Kucinich was mayor (1978-79) will discover that Kucinich proved himself to be a man of his word and an equally scrappy populist who took on the Big Boys of Cleveland-and won. Corporate interests who controlled the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI) wanted to acquire the city-owned electric plant called Muny Light. Kucinich ran on a campaign promise to retain ownership of the plant, despite the fact that his own city council and the six banks holding the city's 14 million in loans (racked up by the previous administration) conspired against him to try to force the sale of the plant. Rather than knuckle under -which is what most politicians would have done-Kucinich held his ground and got a special election ballot referendum on February 27, 1979 to keep the plant and pay off the loans with a 1/2% tax increase. At the time, Kucinich was vilified and lampooned to no end by the media as "Dennis the Menace" or as a Hitleresque cartoon character, but the wheel came full circle when in May of 1996, The Cleveland Magazine (formerly a critic) said:Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich ) adds that:
"There is little debate over the value of Muny Light today. Now Cleveland Public Power, it is a proven asset to the city that between 1985 and 1995 saved its customers $195,148,520 over what they would have paid CEI."
Kucinich's move also preserved hundreds of union jobs. In 1998, city council granted Kucinich amnesty, stating that he had "the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."