Can Dennis Kucinich Be Re-Elected?

Ha ha — what do you think?

The Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee e-mailed me today.

“The Congressional Democratic Primary Election is May 4th, less than four months away,” they reminded their mailing list. “You all remember the extraordinary effort which was made last time to try to unseat Congressman Kucinich. He was successful only because of the help of people such as you, who understand the value of having a fearless spokesperson for truth, economic equality, jobs for all, health care for all and peace in the United States Congress. The Kucinich Campaign will be seeking your help to broaden our fundraising efforts, to involve more and more people, contributing to enable Dennis Kucinich to continue to be "The Man of the People" in the United States Congress. We ask that you help us begin the New Year with a generous contribution.”

Well, what candidate isn’t looking for a generous contribution?

But Dennis is looking pretty safe for 2010 — although I know he’s the type who takes nothing for granted. In case you don’t remember, that “extraordinary effort” to unseat him was made in the primary — and he has no primary challenger, at least so far. And I haven’t heard rumors of any (Share if you have!).

The Republicans did indeed run their strongest candidate in 2008— former state representative and county GOP chair Jim Trakas, who isn’t a crazy wingnut — and he ran the closest race since Kucinich beat Martin Hoke for his seat in 1996. But it wasn’t THAT close (157,268 to 107,918).

So far, three Republicans have filed to run in the primary, and let’s just say it’s not a field that should fill Kucinich supporters with fear and trembling.

A businessman with no political experience named Thomas Olschlager is the only one with a website http://www.myvotefortom.com/index.php

His resume touts entries like “Past President Parma High School Hockey Parents' Association,” “Member of the Union of Poles in America” and “Proud member of the National Rifle Association.” He DOES appear to be something of a crazy wingnut. Each page on his site features a “not so fun fact,” like these:

“32% of all welfare recipients reside in the State of California. This is 1/3 of all of those who receive welfare! That means that after years of liberal government in that State, many millions now live in absolute squalor and are left with no hope and no pride. I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not acceptable!”

“Under the socialist/communist healthcare plan in the Soviet Union during the early part of the 20th Century, the average number of abortions grew to 12 per female regardless of age. Some women had as many as 20, thus causing a sharp rise in uterine damage and related injuries and cancers.”

The other two Republicans who have filed are James Brihan, whom I can’t locate, and one “Peter J. Corrigan,” who is not the Democratic common pleas judge of the same name. The trick of running a familiar-sounding name and hoping voters get confused is an old one, but it’s going to take more than a name to win this primary and way more than that to succeed in the general election. Somehow, I don’t think Dennis is going to need a whole lot of “generous contributions” to pull this one off.