Mr. Kucinich Goes to Washington? (Part 2)

Yesterday we had a bit of fun with some speculation over whether or not Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich might be pulling up stakes and heading West (young man) to represent the people of Washington state. Little did I know at the time that there might be more to this story than simply fodder for The Daily Show. Long time Hot Air friend Liz Mair has been doing some background sleuthing into this tale and thinks there may be some truth to the rumors. (And if not, it’s still good fodder for the water cooler.)

“After people found out that Congressman Kucinich’s district could be eliminated or substantially altered in congressional redistricting by the Ohio Legislature’s Republican majority, Congressman Kucinich received requests from people in twenty states, including Washington State, encouraging him to move and run in their area. The Daily Show interview is instructive of this sentiment.

I query whether Kucinich could actually get himself a seat if he pursued this plan (especially as it directly relates to the new 10th district, or eight of the other nine that will exist in 2012). That’s not just because a) voters don’t tend to love carpet-baggers (and Washingtonians are particularly skeptical of outsiders) b) Kucinich is way, way to the left of the vast majority of voters outside of Jim McDermott’s district (and Olympia) and/or c) members who had a vaguely close call last time (think Smith and/or Larsen) may want to shore up their positions in redistricting by dumping more hard Ds into their seats, but also for this specific reason: Kucinich, last I checked, had a pretty weak record on free trade.

She’s got the breakdown on McDermott’s record in graphic form, along with some predictive work. As to the carpetbagging issue, I’m something of an expert there, having worked for Rick Lazio’s campaign in 2000 trying to stop Hillary Clinton from taking our Senate seat in New York. This could make for an interesting battle out in the northwest. Stay tuned.

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