The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Running on empty?
Last challenger vows to fight on

By Mark Caro
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 17, 2004

If the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is over, someone forgot to tell Dennis Kucinich.

There he was Saturday night, rallying a standing-room-only crowd of about 230 at the "body-mind-spirit" store Healing Earth Resources on North Ashland Avenue, as he pledged to keep campaigning through the Democratic National Convention in July.

Never mind that John Kerry already has nailed down the 2,162 delegates required for the nomination while progressive torch-carrier Kucinich has collected a mere 23. The 57-year-old Ohio representative and former Cleveland mayor spent the days leading up to Tuesday's primary canvassing Chicago and the rest of the state to spread his pro-peace/get-out-of-Iraq, anti-NAFTA/WTO, pro-universal-health care message.

"I'm a realist about the numbers," Kucinich told the casually clad Healing Earth audience, his 5-foot-7 frame tucked into a charcoal suit, his raspy voice booming as he stalked the center aisle without the balky microphone that had been provided. "I can count, OK? But I can also figure. . . . I figure the Democrats are not going to win the election sounding like the Republicans."

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