Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, who recently lost his seat in a bitter primary with fellow Democrat Marcy Kaptur, announced his next career move today: a PAC.
On the organization’s website, Kucinich describes the PAC, Kucinich Action, as a “a new organization dedicated to empowering individuals to engage with the political process.”
In a telephone interview, Kucinich said the PAC would back candidates all over the country, incumbents and challengers alike (he said they would also get involved in issue campaigns). The candidates will be chosen via a sort of crowd-sourcing process.
The choice of candidates “is going to be subject to the interest expressed by constitutients in those districts,” Kucinich said. “People will be competing to get us involved.” People will be able to vote for candidates on the Kucinich Action website.
“Keep in mind though, you can anticipate that the people we’ll be supporting will be people who we’re in alignment with on key issues,” Kucinich said.
He said the donor base is going to be a “very broad subscription,” consisting of mostly small donors.
The former “Boy Mayor” of Cleveland, long-shot presidential candidate, and congressman toyed with the idea of running for Congress in Washington State after losing his Ohio seat, but decided against it. He pushed back against the idea that the PAC is a second act.
“This is about my political involvement, it’s not about the next phase of my life,” he said. “There’s a whole range of things I’ll be involved in – that discussion can happen at another time.” He declined to specify his other projects (“too soon”).