Dennis Kucinich is staying home.
Two weeks after insisting he could run for Congress and president at the same time, his decision Thursday to drop his second bid for the White House suggests he is concerned about winning a seventh term in Congress.
He faces four candidates in the Democratic primary, including Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, who has become his chief rival by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and winning media attention.
Kucinich, 61, who has easily won re-election, wouldn't say Thursday what influenced his contested congressional race had on his decision to drop out of the presidential contest. Kucinich will hold a news conference at noon today at a downtown union hall to explain his decision.
He cited his exclusion from national debates and the practical strains of running a national campaign as reasons for leaving.
"There is a point at which you just realize that you, look, you accept it, that it isn't going to happen and you move on," he said during a Congressional endorsement interview with The Plain Dealer editorial board and reporters. Kucinich stayed in the 2004 presidential race until late summer, when he had little competition for re-election back home.
To hear more of Kucinich's announcement to The Plain Dealer, listen here:
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Kucinich said he will not endorse another Democrat in the primary.
Kucinich is seeking a seventh term in Congress, but his long-shot bid for the White House has drawn four Democratic opponents.
When he kicked off his congressional re-election bid Jan. 9, he said he would focus on his local race, but then ratcheted up his presidential bid, campaigning in Michigan and Nevada and filing unsuccessful legal appeals to stay on the ballot in Texas and to win a spot on stage during presidential debates. He has fared poorly in early presidential contests.
Meanwhile, the congressional race made headlines when Cimperman revealed that Kucinich had asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate a Cimperman campaign stunt. Cimperman entered Kucinich's Lakewood office Jan. 3 with a camera-toting campaign worker to drop off a "missing" poster mocking Kucinich's presidential travels.
And this week, Cimperman launched a television advertisement critical of Kucinich's time away from the 10th Congressional District, which includes Cleveland's West Side and western suburbs.
Kucinich countered with a video appealing for immediate contributions and revamped his re-election Web site. Borrowing a page from his days as an populist mayor, he charged that corporations were behind Cimperman's campaign.
"Right now I'm under attack by corporate interests, most of them from the city of Cleveland, who have an agenda that has nothing to do with the people of my community," he said in the video.
Cimperman, referring to money Kucinich raises from Hollywood actors, repeated one of his favorite lines Thursday: "The money I raise is from Cleveland, his is from California."
Cimperman campaigned for Kucinich two years ago after he was reassured by the congressman that he would not run for president again. Five weeks after being reelected Kucinich announced he had changed his mind.
Kucinich defended his decision during Thursday's interview, saying Democrats got elected in 2006 to end the war, and within weeks they voted to fund it.
"When I heard that, I knew that I was going to have to challenge my party nationally and there was only one way to do that," he said.
Kucinich said he has "zero intention" of getting involved in the presidential primaries by endorsing another Democratic candidate.
Congressional challenger Rosemary Palmer, another supporter of Kucinich's reelection in 2006, said Kucinich's move does not affect her campaign.
"I entered this race in June because I did not feel he was focused on the job, nor able to effect the change we so desperately need. On issues of job creation, health care, the environment, and the Iraq war, Mr. Kucinich often talks a good game but seldom delivers," she said in a prepared statement.
North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O'Grady, another challenger, has had little criticism of Kucinich other than to complain about his time away from the district. He said Thursday that if Kucinich had dropped his bid for the White House sooner he probably wouldn't be running for Congress.
"It's my hope that he redirects his interest back to the district," said O'Grady, speaking from Washington D.C., where he is attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
O'Grady said he has no plans to drop out.
Candidate Barbara Ferris, former Peace Corps and United Nations worker who was trounced by Kucinich two years ago, said the Congressman hasn't done much.
"He was unable to achieve anything running for president; he was unable to achieve in 11 years in Congress," she said.
Always coy about his political plans, Kucinich described his departure from the presidential race as "transitioning out" but would not say what that means. Nor did he address the criticisms of his opponents.
"I want people to know that I love this community and that have repeatedly put my career on the line for this community," he said. "I want to make sure there is no confusion in this district about what my intention is. I want to be the congressman."
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