Presidential Run Done, Kucinich Is Fighting to Keep Seat in House

"They want to buy a congressman," he said. "My reputation in Cleveland is that I can't be bought and I can't be bossed. And people like that about me."

Aware that he has missed 139 votes since January 2007, the lion's share because of presidential campaigning, Kucinich has not missed a roll call since Jan. 15.

He has turned to those fervent backers of his White House campaigns -- the 2004 and 2008 races raised more than $12 million -- for help, raising more than $800,000 for his House race in just a few weeks this year, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission. Cimperman had raised $487,000 as of mid-February, according to the FEC.

Among those funneling last-minute cash to Kucinich are the family of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt ($4,600), the Medical Marijuana PAC ($5,000), former "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul ($500) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis ($1,000).

Kucinich said Flynt has been a friend for more than 30 years, as have other celebrities, and he defends his reliance on their cash as a means to defending himself. "My roots in Cleveland are unmistakable," Kucinich said. "But if I didn't have the support of people nationally, I can't tell you that I would have a chance [against Cimperman]. That's the price of politics today."

Kucinich has a history of political rises and falls. Elected to the Cleveland City Council at age 23, he became mayor at age 31 in 1977. But after a tumultuous battle with creditors, the city was left essentially bankrupt. Kucinich was run out of office two years later. After a lengthy sabbatical from politics, he ran for state Senate in the mid-1990s and then ousted a Republican in a tough race for Congress in 1996.

Kucinich's unorthodox side has been on display for decades. But recently it began to grate on local activists who want him to focus on a region that has lost 40,000 jobs in the past 10 years.

"It's not unexpected for Dennis to be quirky. But if I had my druthers, I'd prefer he cast his sights more on Ohio," said Harriet Applegate, executive secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor.

Applegate and other local labor leaders sat Kucinich down in early January and warned him that if he did not come off the presidential trail, he would lose his congressional seat, according to a source familiar with the meeting, who requested anonymity in order to speak about the private session.

Cimperman, who faces three other Democrats who may split the anti-Kucinich vote, criticizes the congressman for not bringing home the bacon. He cites a study of congressional earmarks by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense that shows that only one Ohio Democrat brought in less than the $8.1 million Kucinich secured for home-state projects.

Applegate, however, said lunch-pail workers in Cleveland prefer Kucinich's fiery voice in Congress, even if he has not passed much legislation or brought home as much pork as some others. She is leading a major union push on Kucinich's behalf that includes 30,000 phone calls to union households and two sets of automated calls from union leaders to voters throughout the district.

"It doesn't help us to have all 435 members of the House be compromisers and negotiators," she said.

She shrugged off Kucinich's two presidential campaigns. "It hasn't worn thin yet," she said. "If he were to do it again, that might be a different story."