c Written by Dennis J. Kucinich on the campaign trail in Iowa, and adapted
from his guest entry on the blog of Stanford law professor Lawrence
Lessig:
http://lessig.org/blog/It's best to read it in Dennis's own words, but since everyone has time constraints, I've put together a short version that I hope will encourage DUers to read more at
http://www.kucinich.usLast week, in "honor" of the black-out, Dennis wrote about the electric industry, deregulation and the problems it causes, specifically discussing First Energy Corp, the monopoly blamed for the black-out after power shut-down at one of its Ohio plants. And he wrote of his own history of battling an electric utility monopoly.
Here are the "players":
CEI -- a utility monopoly, predecessor of First Energy (the company whose plant failed in Ohio and set off the Great Blackout of 2003!) CEI wanted to buy up its competitor, Muny Light
Muny Light -- Cleveland's publicly owned utility company, which provided municipal power customers with savings on their electric bill of 20-30 percent. It also provided cheaper electricity for 76 city facilities and thousands of Cleveland street lights, saving taxpayers millions of dollars each year.
Cleveland Trust -- the biggest bank in town, it had loaned the city $15 million during the term of the mayor who was in office before Kucinich. This mayor had also agreed to sell Muny Light to CEI.
Mayor Dennis Kucinich -- as Clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court (a citywide elected office), he had organized a campaign to save Muny Light. There was a petition drive (which apparently failed) and then Dennis ran for mayor of Cleveland, pledging that if he was elected, he would cancel the sale of Muny Light on his first day in office.
The action:
Mayor Kucinich kept his promise and cancelled the sale of Muny Light.
Cleveland Trust told Mayor Kucinich if he didn't sell Muny Light, it would not renew the city's credit on the $15 million in loans his predecessor had taken out.
But if Mayor Kucinich DID sell Muny Light, Cleveland Trust's chairman promised $FIFTY million in NEW loans for the city! Everything could be smooth sailing for Mayor Kucinich, his future pretty much assured, if he would only sell Muny Light. But he had made a promise to the voters, because he knew that Muny Light was important to people in Cleveland.
Dennis describes making his decision:
"Where I come from it matters how much people pay for electricity. I grew up in the inner city of Cleveland, the oldest of 7 children. My parents never owned a home, they lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars. I remember when there were 5 children and my parents living in a 3 room upstairs apartment on Cleveland's east side. My parents would sometimes sit in the kitchen at one of those old white enamel top tables, which, when the surface was chipped, was black underneath. When they counted their pennies, I could hear them clicking on the enamel top table. Click, Click, Click."
"When I was in the board room with the Chairman of Cleveland Trust Bank, I was thinking about my parents counting their pennies and I could hear those pennies hitting the enamel top table. So, I said no to the sale of Muny Light to CEI. At Midnight, Cleveland Trust put the City of Cleveland into default."
Afterwards, the media campaigned against Kucinich in his re-election bid and he was defeated. But Muny Light had been saved. Dennis ultimately left Cleveland, after being unable to get a job, having his marriage fall apart, and nearly losing his house. (I'd say this is a candidate who actually knows what the unemployed in America go through.)
Dennis writes:
"I had been asked many times by other politicians why I just didn't make the deal and sell the light system, especially when my career was on the line. I believe that there are, in fact, some things more important than the next election."
Epilogue:
Kucinich was out of politics for about 15 years, at which time people asked him to come back to Cleveland and run for the Ohio state senate. People had by that time realized that he had done the right thing in his refusal to sell Muny Light. He returned to Cleveland and ran for the Ohio senate and was elected, then was elected to his current seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Now Dennis Kucinich is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the 2004 presidential election.
We all know how important this election is and I'm proud to support Dennis Kucinich, who has demonstrated in spades that he considers standing by his principles and keeping his promises to voters to be the most important things.
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