Heroes in Business - Dennis Kucinich, former Mayor of Cleveland OH, former US presidential candidate, author The Division of Light and Power

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Running again in Ohio. Dennis Kucinich, former Mayor of Cleveland OH, former US presidential candidate, author The Division of Light and Power, and House Rep. Ohio is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and famous celebrity host The Eliances Heroes Radio Show  

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. All right. Well, welcome back to the show. And by the way, again, I really appreciate the feedback we get from our past interviews, especially recently when I just had on an interview, General Wesley Clark. So make sure that you go to Eliance's.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com, the only place where entrepreneurs align. And as you know, we learn from so many incredible people.

And I'm so honored today. We have with us Congressman Kucinich. He's a politician, representative from Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, as well as former candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. And also now author of The Division of Light and Power. You can reach and get his book at finneyavenuebooks.com. And of course, we'll have that on our website at Alliances.com. Well, welcome to the show, Congressman. Again, we're very excited to have you here today. David, I appreciate being on the show with you and I'm very eager to talk about the Division

of Light and Power. All right. So let's get right into that. The Division of Light and Power. What brought you to be able to write that? Well, you know, I started the book in November of 1979 at the completion of my term as mayor of the city of Cleveland. But I was so close to those tumultuous events, I couldn't really slow things down and be able to write it. I had all the records with me. I've carried those records around in over a hundred boxes for 40 years. But finally I left Congress in 2013, had some time to work on it. But in 2018, I just said, I'm going to go for it. And I finished the book. And it's this story about a young person who gets involved in politics at an early age, starts to see all these funny things going on inside City Hall, stands up, raises questions, speaks out, get elected mayor at age 31.

And then the rest is the history in this book, which corporate espionage, sabotage, interference in government, mob assassination plots. This book has it all. Now, and you mentioned too, is at age 31, right? The youngest mayor of Cleveland. Right. And how, what have you seen? Youngest mayor in the country. Youngest mayor in the country. What have you seen? Youngest mayor in the country. Youngest mayor in the country. Of any big city. Talk to us about what that was like having been nominated and received, you know, became mayor as the youngest one.

What was like going through your mind? I mean, you set a record. Well, I wasn't looking to be the youngest. I was looking to be the best. And I had already had 10 years of involvement in municipal government. I started at such an early age. And by the time I became mayor, I was elected on a promise to save our municipal utility from a takeover by a utility monopoly. And I saw all the machinations going on that were aimed at essentially trying to steal the city's electric system, get it at a cut rate when it was worth a quarter of a billion dollars, sell it for $88 million, and more than that, expose the city to higher electric rates and

higher taxes. It was a battle royal. And as mayor, it was my job, I felt, to defend the people's right to have not just an electric system they call their own, but also to have cheaper electricity, which our city provided at 20% savings from the utility monopoly that was trying to take us over. As you were writing this book and probably recollecting as far as a number of things that occurred within your career, I'm sure it brought up a lot of different things of emotions and memories. What are a couple of those that really stood out the most to you? The moment that I started a campaign to save our municipal electric system, I was at that point, the clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court,

I just left city council, became elected clerk. It's a judicial office. And I started a campaign to save Muni Light. At that point, a high-powered rifle shot missed my head by a fraction of an inch. Later on, when I became mayor, I learned from police intelligence. They said, hey, look, this is all about Muni Light. You're stopping some people from making a lot of money. And later on, further down the road, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Organized Crime said that, yes, in fact, there was a mob-related assassination plot. They basically verified it all. I never talked about it when I was mayor. So that was certainly one thing that caught my attention. December 15th, 1978, the largest bank in Ohio told me, then the mayor,

that I had to sell our electric system or the bank would not renew the city's credit on loans I hadn't even taken out. They wanted me to sell the electric system to their business partner, the private utility monopoly. I said, no. They put the city into default. And as a result, I asked the people to pass a tax to pay off the loans that I hadn't even incurred. The people passed the tax. The banks promised that if the people passed the tax, they'd take us out of default. The banks reneged on the promise, kept us in default, even though we had the money to pay it off until I left office. That's when they renewed the city's credit. I mean, this story is unprecedented in American

history, but it's a cautionary tale. Whenever private interests want to take something that belongs to the people, and when this American rescue money runs out, cities are going to be once again under threat of being forced to sell or attempts to buy, corporate interest attempts to buy electric systems, water systems, sewer systems. It's relevant today. Truly amazing. Amazing. And again, you're listening and watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. We have with us Congressman

Kucinich, representative from Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, as well as former candidate for presidency and author. The Division of Light and Power. Make sure you go to finneyavenuebooks.com. Now, Congressman, I, yep, absolutely. And we're going to have that too on our site, alliances.com. So Make sure you go to finneyavenuebooks.com. Now, Congressman,

I, yep, absolutely. And we're going to have that too on our site, alliances.com. So make sure you go to finneyavenuebooks.com. Congressman, I know one of the things is, and I haven't asked another politician this before, but one of the things is as a politician, I know you've got to deal with so many different personalities, probably more than anybody else. What are some of the secrets you could share with us? How do you go about adapting and being able to communicate with so many people when there's so many emotions and feelings and that? Well, first of all, remember who you are. Just because someone may have a lot of resources doesn't mean that they deserve any more

of a hearing than the people who do not. Secondly, make sure that politics, one of the problems of politics is it's transactional. You know, you do something for me and I'll do something for you. Try to avoid those situations. Never ever be in a situation where somebody asks you to do something and at the same time they want to talk about a campaign contribution or helping your campaign in some way. You've got to be very careful about those kind of things. And third, don't be afraid to take a stand. You know, it's very important that people who think about going into public life or are in public life know that occasionally, you know, you're going to make a decision that others may disagree with.

Well, you have to be prepared to do that. But always do it without making it personal. That's the fourth thing. Never, never make anything personal. Because when things become personal, you lose your insight into what's the best path. And so always keep an open heart. Finally, don't ever hold hard feelings towards anyone. Because when you have those, you carry them around and they affect you in every way. You know, it's always good to live with an open heart and to be free. Excellent advice.

And here you were at age 31 as the youngest mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Yet now fast forward today, many years later. Now what are you doing? You're running for what again? I'm a candidate for mayor of Cleveland again. I mean, that just has to be, it just, it has to be like just so surreal. That just has to be, it just, it has to be like just so surreal. Well, you know, it's, I was elected in 77. You know, if I win this election, I will take office again 44 years later. The city is a smaller city. There is a lot more crime. It's really being overrun by crime, a tremendous amount of poverty.

There's a lot of work to be done. But I think that all the experience that I've had, you know, in city council, as clerk of courts, as mayor, as a state senator, 16 years in the U.S. House. You know, I think that I am equipped to meet the challenge and it will be a challenge. meet the challenge, and it will be a challenge. Now, back to your book, too. Again, the division of light and power that can be reached at finneyavenuebooks.com. What are a couple of the things that the specific maybe takeaways of what you want your readers to get out of it? That the existence of democracy in our communities depends on, first of all, our informed understanding of what's going on. If something doesn't make sense to you, when you think about it over and over, this doesn't make sense. I can promise you at the root of it is something that's not right.

And that's number one. Number two, share your opinions with others. Number three, be prepared to mobilize if you have to, to go and raise questions about what it is you're concerned about. Number four, show up at public meetings, go to a council meeting, go to a committee hearing, be ready to speak out and raise questions. And if questions aren't being answered to your satisfaction, that means there's a problem. Be prepared to take further action. Challenge public officials and don't be afraid to do that. And Congressman, do you think people are now more involved within government than when you first started or not? I mean, it seems to on my it seems to almost come in waves. Are we at a high wave now or a low? Where are we at? Well, you know, it depends. I mean, in Cleveland, we had the lowest voter participation ever in municipal elections. Nationally, we could do a lot better. I think that with social media, there's ways of getting people more involved.

But there's also you get into this tremendous hyper-partisanship, which doesn't do the country any good. So you're right, it comes in waves. And I'm hopeful that as the public becomes more involved and, you know, that we set aside this idea of a Democrat, Republican, left, right, liberal, conservative, And remember first that we're all Americans. We're part of an American community. And at a Cleveland level, we're part of a Cleveland community. And, you know, ideology sometimes stands in the way of us trying to manage the events and affairs of our community and our country. You know, so I like to think that, you know, what I found out in campaigning

for president years ago is that, you know, there are certain ways of looking at the world. People do have their ideological positions, but essentially I don't think the American people are that ideological, although they can be whipped up into a fury, which generally doesn't serve the country. I think most Americans look for an underlying unity to be expressed and want a government they can call their own. And we've got time for one more question. I think that's important, especially how young you got started. What type of secrets or advice do you have for young adults who want to get involved in politics? Number one, don't take yourself seriously. Take the work that you do seriously. But when I was

starting, I was knocking on doors and people thought at first I was the paper boy. That's when newspapers were delivered door to door in big cities. And so you have to have a sense of humor about yourself and at the same time, a mission to represent people and to hear what they have to say. That's what that going door to door was about. That's how I learned. I learned from the people. So, you know, if you want to start, do it. You don't have to check with any brokers. There's so many brokerages that are set up. Well,

you want to run for office? Come and see me, son. No, you don't have to do that. Just go to your local board of elections. Find out what the requirements are, how many signatures you need. Go door to door, get those signatures filed, and then make sure you know why you're doing it and get ready to represent people. Well, excellent. I mean, Congressman Kucinich, your story inspires fellow Americans. That's what makes a hero. Representative from Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, as well as former candidate for a Democratic nomination for the president of the United States, and now candidate again too for mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Make sure you check out his book, The Division of Life and Power. Go to finneyavenuebooks.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. Thank you, David.