BlueBloggin

As the press continues to control elections The Des Moines Register felt compelled to print their criteria for kicking Dennis Kucinich from the today’s debate. I find these laughable for two reasons; 1) Kucinich met all of DMR requirements; 2) Alan Keyes was allowed to participate because he provided a lease to prove office space. Not to accuse Keyes of anything but one can easily make and print anything with computers even money. So I find production of a lease as proof of a candidate a very poor excuse to allow Keyes and not Kucinich.

Today, The Des Moines Register made there criteria for a candidate to participate in their debate and here they are:

1. Candidates must have filed an FEC Form F-2 “Statement of Candidacy” with the Federal Election Commission, and

2. Candidates must have publicly announced an intention to run for the nomination of the Republican or the Democratic Party for President of the United States, and

3. Candidates must have had a campaign office inside the State of Iowa as of October 1, 2007, and

4. Candidates must have employed at least one paid campaign staff representative to perform full-time campaign duties in the State of Iowa on behalf of the candidate since at least October 1, 2007, and

5. Candidates must have had at least a 1% support showing in the Des Moines Register’s October, 2007 Iowa Poll.

Neither Dennis Kucinich nor Mike Gravel had a campaign office in Iowa by the Oct. 1 deadline, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Gravel also did not have any paid staff in the state by the deadline.

Now lets look at what Kucinich did:

1) Kucinich filed his FEC Form F-2 “Statement of Candidacy”;

2) Kunichi publicly announced;

3) Kucinich has had a full-time staffer – an Iowa resident – on board since April. His name is Marc Rubenstein;

4) Kucinich least 1% in the Des Moines Register October, 2007;

5) Kunicnich has a campaign Office inside the State of Iowa as of October 1, 2007 . However, the office is in the home of Marc Rubenstein and The Des Moines Register doesn’t like that one bit.

According to The Des Moines Register the campaign has to have actual real estate in Iowa like a store front something with a lease.

Now for the polls:

• Kucinich polled second in a California straw poll earlier this fall, behind John Edwards. Edwards received 29% of the total votes cast, Kucinich received just under 24%, and Obama and Clinton came in third and fourth, with 22.5% and 16.8% respectively. The other Democratic candidates were all in the low single digits.

• Kucinich polled first in both the ABC and MSNBC “who won the debate” polls a few months ago, to the extreme embarrassment of ABC, who put up a second poll, which he also won, which forced them to drop the internet links to those results. Now, that link is still up, but it opens to a blank white page, the color of whitewash.

• Dennis Kucinich is first in the online vote taken by The Nation Magazine a few weeks ago, with 35%, nine points above Barack Obama, and 22% points above John Edwards. (Edwards polled 13% to Hillary Clinton’s 5%.)

• In last month’s Democracy for America poll, Kucinich received almost 32% of the 150,000-plus votes cast, more than Edwards and Obama combined. He polled first in 47 states, including both Iowa and New Hampshire.

• He polled first in the Progressive Democrats of America online poll of its membership last week, with 41%. Broken down by states, in that poll he came in first in 46 states, including both Iowa and New Hampshire. Edwards was second with 26%, topping out in four states, beating Kucinich by one vote in Utah and two votes and the District of Columbia.

Posted by nytexan December 13th, 2007 | Category: Democratic Debate, Des Moines Register, Election, Iowa, Kucinich, primary | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL