Dennis Kucinich

Another politician I have respect for in the United States, Dennis Kucinich (Rep. D-OH), is now certain to leave the government when the 112th Congress expires: he announced yesterday that he will not be contesting an open House seat in Washington. In March, he competed with Marcy Kaptur for the Democratic nomination in Ohio's 9th congressional district, but he was unsuccessful.

I agree with him not seeking a seat in Washington, but I do have mixed emotions about his decision. On one hand, I was highly disappointed to see that his district was affected when Ohio lost two of its House seats and electoral votes as a result of the 2010 census. I have long admired Kucinich's strong anti-war views, his support for healthcare for every American, and his willingness to criticize people from both major parties: I think he is needed in Congress and that those aforementioned qualities need to be emphasized more.

At the same time, Washington is far away from Ohio, and Kucinich does not have any ties to the state; here in the United Kingdom, I do not support the practice of "parachuting" somebody into a seat far away from their residence, and so I would be a hypocrite to endorse it elsewhere. In addition, there was no guarantee that Kucinich would have won the primary anyway, and it would have been awful if his career in Congress had ended on him losing two primaries in two different states within the same year. Finally, if he had gone to Washington, he would likely have had an aura of "abandoning Ohio" surrounding him.

I loathe to lose a strong anti-war voice in the House, but again, I do believe that Kucinich made the correct decision by not attempting to run for a House seat in Washington. Over the past forty years, he has been involved in Ohio politics in some form or another: it is the state he comes from, and I am sure there is still more he can do for it.