U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich Identifies Most Important Issues Facing Toledo & Cleveland
Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012, will be an important election for Ohio and the country. Not only will Cuyahoga County be electing a new Prosecutor (see Cool Cleveland’s questions to Prosecutor candidates here), but they will also be electing a member to the House of Representatives from the newly created 9th Congressional District, which stretches along Lake Erie from Toledo to Cleveland. Because the new district contains heavily Democratic voters, the primary on March 6 will most likely determine who is elected in November.
Three candidates are in the race: Representative Dennis Kuchinich, Representative Marcy Kaptur, and Graham Veysey. All three have been invited to answer a few questions from Cool Cleveland that we plan to publish prior to the election.
Please use a maximum of 700 words total to answer the following two questions:
Question A: What procedures and techniques will you put in place to ensure that you are able to fully & fairly represent the two vastly disparate urban regions: Toledo & Cleveland?
Toledo and Cleveland are not really that “disparate” in terms of economic base, demographics, and priorities. But, obviously, there are differences that must be addressed.
I’ve already opened a headquarters office in Toledo, and I have additional offices in Sandusky and Lorain, which are also part of the new Congressional District. And, I am working very closely with individuals and groups in the Toledo area to ensure that their priorities are being addressed – not just during the campaign, but beyond.
As is the case with my current Congressional offices in Lakewood and Parma, it is crucial to have local staff who understand the community, who are sensitive to the needs of the constituents, and who are effective and responsive in dealing with the 10,000-or-so constituent requests that are brought to our attention every year. We have been exceptionally effective and responsive, and we will continue to be so in the new areas of the 9th Congressional District.
Our new Congressional office in Toledo will be staffed by people who know and understand Toledo. Our staff in the Cleveland area will continue their outstanding service. And I will continue to be a strong and visible presence and voice for my old friends locally, as well as for my new friends a short drive west on the Ohio Turnpike.
Question B: Name the top three issues that affect Toledo specifically, and the top three issues that affect Cleveland specifically, and why.
The issues and challenges facing our two communities are not geographic:
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the taxpayers and residents of the old 10th District about $2 billion. They’ve cost the taxpayers and residents of the old 9th District about $2 billion. Imagine what we could have done in either District if that $2 billion had been available for jobs, economic development, improvements to infrastructure, investment in new technologies, education, or dozens of other crying needs.
Unfortunately, my good friend, the Congresswoman from Toledo, voted consistently to support George Bush’s wars and spend a half-trillion dollars on foreign intervention and foreign aggression. As a leader for more than 10 years in opposing those wars, I have also been a leader in bringing those dollars – and our brave sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers — back home to Toledo, to Cleveland, to all of northern Ohio, and to the rest of the nation.
I have also been a leading voice in making shipping, aerospace, automotive manufacturing, and steel production top national priorities in terms of national security. If we can strengthen our manufacturing and technology industries and ports in Toledo and Cleveland, we can put people back to work contributing to the economy of the future. And, we can re-focus on desperate domestic needs such as roads, bridges, water systems, sewer systems, and other re-building priorities.
International trade agreements – including NAFTA and GATT — have severely damaged the economies and opportunities in Toledo, as they have in Cleveland and elsewhere around the nation.
And, on a more individual level, the foreclosure crisis that has enveloped Toledo – as well as Cleveland – demands urgent attention. That is why I am proud of my efforts to bring $422 million in federal funds to the entire state of Ohio for foreclosure prevention, which is a huge issue in Toledo. And, I was successful in securing an additional $127 million for local jurisdictions in Ohio, such as Toledo, as well as Cleveland, to buy foreclosed and abandoned properties so that they can be land-banked, re-used, re-developed, or otherwise appropriately addressed.
No one will work harder to serve Toledo and the other communities in the new 9th Congressional District than I.
To read all the candidates’ responses to all of Cool Cleveland’s questions, please click here.