OH-10 & P2008: Kucinich (D) Protests Exclusion From Presidential Events; Hires New Campaign Manager

On Saturday the presidential campaign of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) sent out an email to supporters, complaining bitterly that Iowa Democratic leaders are "rigging the game" by excluding him from two events: yesterday's Democratic Steak Fry in Indianola hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), and the forum on health care and financial security to be hosted on Thursday in Davenport by the AARP and Iowa Public Television. Event organizers claim that Kucinich does not have a sufficiently "active organization" in Iowa, but Kucinich correctly notes that at about 3% he actually leads event participants Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) in most Iowa polls.

Meanwhile, Kucinich continues to ignore primary opponent Rosemary Palmer (D-Cleveland) and her challenge to debate Kucinich five times in a series of events devoted to substantive issues in the 10th Ohio Congressional District race. He doesn't mind forestalling debate in his own Congressional race, just being shut out of debates in the presidential contest.

In other news, Kucinich has fired campaign manager David Bright, who had declined to relocate to Kucinich's Cleveland headquarters from his organic farm in Dixmont, Maine, and replaced him with hired retired Army Capt. Mike Klein. Klein is tasked with turning around Kucinich's presidential campaign based on a platform of “strength through peace.” Klein, a veteran of the first Gulf War, worked on the 2004 campaign of Gen. Wesley Clark (D-AR) but has never managed a campaign before. Klein says he is bringing in new staffers, launching a new Web site, and working on branding and messaging. He said he was brought in for his leadership skills and not necessarily his political acumen, and described Kucinich’s bid as “a guerilla campaign, so to speak.”

CORRECTION: David Bright has contacted me to say that he was not fired from the campaign, but was in fact merely an interim campaign manager until Klein could come on board. Bright indicates that he is "still working for the Kucinich campaign full time, as paid staff, at the same salary as when I started," and that moving to Ohio was "never a condition of the job that I move to Cleveland." Apparently I misunderstood the import of the news story upon which I relied, and I apologize for any confusion caused by my error.