Sunday, February 29, 2004

Kucinich Campaign Gears Up in Ohio for Tuesday's Election
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2004

Contact: Terre Lundy/Matt Harris: (216) 889-2004, press@kucinich.us

With the Ohio Presidential primary only a few days away, Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich is putting on the equivalent of a political full court press to break through the wall-to-wall campaign coverage that senators John Kerry and John Edwards have been attracting as they've skipped across Ohio for the past few days.

Fresh off a second-place finish in Hawaii, ahead of Edwards, Kucinich returns to Cleveland Sunday following a nationally televised debate in New York City Sunday morning.

While the candidate himself will be making dozens of campaign appearances in Cleveland and northern Ohio over the next few days, his volunteers and staff have been reaching out around the clock to hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters through television and radio ads, direct mail, email, door-to-canvassing and leafleting.

That all-out effort leading up to Tuesday's election includes: $300,000 in electronic media, including the first-ever broadcast of a 30-minute documentary airing on TV stations this weekend; 25,000 postcards to absentee voters; 100,000 pieces of direct mail to registered voters; 400,000 phone calls, including both live and automated; 600 volunteer phone callers; 6,000 yard signs; and a steady stream of news and campaign updates on Kucinich's website, www.kucinich.us.

On Thursday, Kucinich also picked up key endorsements from the state's two most influential African American newspapers, the Call & Post and CityNews.

Polls show frontrunner John Kerry with a sizable lead in Ohio, but Kerry's and Edward's positions on trade issues and their opposition to significant changes in the nation's health care system may cut into their votes in a state that has lost thousands of jobs to foreign competition and where the number of unemployed and uninsured continues to grow.

Kucinich has pointed out that Kerry and Edwards support the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, which has enabled corporations to ship American jobs overseas and allowed foreign competitors, especially in the steel industry, to dump cheap products on U.S. shores, further undercutting domestic sales and steelworker jobs.

The challenge, admits the Kucinich campaign, is to reach the voters to persuade them that, in Ohio, this is a three-man race, not a two-man horserace. (Rev. Al Sharpton is not on the ballot in Ohio.)

With all the attention focused on Kerry and Edwards, that challenge, says the campaign, is formidable.

For information about the National campaign: http://www.kucinich.us

For Congressman Kucinich's Schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.

To schedule an interview with Kucinich or a spokesperson: jonathans@kucinich.us

Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)

No comments: