CLEVELAND (TDB) -- The Washington grapevine is ripe with rumors that U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat who just won a sixth term in the House, may run for President again. He spent $10.7 million in 2004 on a quixotic quest for the job, including $3 million in federal matching funds, and barely was a blip in the Demoratic primaries that year.
The liberal congressman still has a campaign committee, Kucinich for President Inc., that lists its headquarters on North High Street in Columbus, the state capital of Ohio. Right now, it exists only on paper and has been accumlating debt. About $278,500 was owed to Donald J. McTigue, a lawyer on North High Street who has been handling "legal services" for the Kucinich Committee over the years, according to Federal Election Commission records.
McTigue is Kucinich's campaign treasurer. He also is a former legal aide to Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown from the days in the 1980s when Brown was Ohio's Secretary of State. McTigue at the moment is suing the Franklin County (Columbus) Board of Elections on behalf of Mary Jo Kilroy, a Democratic contender who is trailing U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce by 1,055 votes in Ohio's 15th Congressional District race. A recount is under way because the contest is so tight, and McTigue is questioning how elections officials disqualified 2,600 provisional ballots; the suit wants a judge to decide if they were tossed out in error.
McTigue, no doubt, is billing the Kilroy campaign for his time like he charged Kucinich. But after all the votes are counted, will he ever see a dime?
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