QUICK LINKS Today's News News releases ISU homepage NEWS RELEASE 2-13-03 Contacts: Pat Miller, Lectures Program, (515) 294-9935 Annette Hacker, News Service, (515) 294-3720 CONGRESSMAN KUCINICH TO KICK OFF PRESIDENTIAL CAUCUS SERIES AT IOWA STATE AMES, Iowa -- Author Studs Terkel and 20,000 e-mail respondents say U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) should run for President. Kucinich still isn't saying, but he's expected to form a presidential exploratory committee any day. Meanwhile, Kucinich will visit Iowa State University Feb. 18 as the first speaker in the Lectures Program's "Presidential Caucus Series." The free lecture, "Peace and Security through Diplomacy," is scheduled for 8 p.m. in the Sun Room, Memorial Union. Kucinich is committed to public service, peace, human rights, workers' rights and the environment. As chairman of the Progressive Caucus, the largest congressional caucus, he has promoted a national health care system, preservation of Social Security, increased unemployment insurance benefits, and the establishment of wholesale, cost-based rates for electricity, natural gas and home heating oil. Kucinich's Web site, www.kucinich.us, outlines his three major causes. They include development of a Department of Peace, nuclear disarmament, and a ban on space-based weapons. A former Cleveland city councilman, Kucinich was elected the city's mayor in 1977. Then 31, he was the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. Kucinich's profile grew in 1978, when he refused demands to sell Cleveland's municipal electric utility, even though doing so would have helped to pay the city's debts. Kucinich lost his reelection bid the following year. A decade and a half passed before he again won elected office, this time to the Ohio Senate. Kucinich was later honored in 1998 by a Cleveland city council resolution, for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system." Kucinich has served as a U.S. Congressman since 1996. -30- Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111 Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu Copyright © 1995-2003, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.