Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, speaks to the media following a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House in this file photo.

Dennis Kucinich has yet to shake the nearly $500,000 in debts and obligations from a presidential bid he aborted almost a decade ago.

And judging by the Federal Election Commission report that Kucinich for President filed today, it’ll be a while before he does. The committee raised just $1 in the final three months of the year.

Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor and Ohio congressman, sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2004 and 2008 on an anti-war platform. The 66-year-old lost a primary challenge last year to fellow Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

Fresh out of Congress (though quickly snatched up as a Fox News contributor), perhaps he can devote more time to paying down his presidential debts. Kucinich is enjoying the good life, as he tweeted from a vegan brunch the other day:

Photo: @ejkucinich & me with beautiful new friends we met at #vegan #brunch today. Sweet & Natural, Mt Rainier, MD twitter.com/Dennis_Kucinic…

— Dennis Kucinich (@Dennis_Kucinich) January 27, 2013

FEC reports show his 2004 campaign owes $452,436.50 to Columbus attorney Donald J. McTigue for legal services and records storage. Kucinich for President 2008 owed another $52,000 as of the end of September, much of that also to McTigue, FEC reports show. McTigue didn’t immediately return a call to his office today.

Kucinich for President also owes his Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee much of the $52,474 it borrowed in July 2011.

Running for president is hard, but paying off the debts you incur while doing so may be even more challenging, Bloomberg Businessweek showed last April. Not everyone can be as lucky as Kucinich’s fellow 2008 primary contender, Hillary Clinton. As Businessweek’s Joshua Green reported this week, some of President Barack Obama’s donors pooled together to help the outgoing secretary of state retire her presidential campaign debts.

She’s got a clean slate, should she choose to run again. Not that — as Kucinich knows — that’s necessary.

Original post is Kucinich Raises $1 — Half-Million in Debt To Go by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, greets delegates at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sept. 4, 2012.

To the losers go the TV deals:

This just in from The Plain Dealer and wires: Cleveland’s own Dennis Kucinich, the retired congressman and liberal firebrand, has a new assignment.

FOX News contributor.

Kucinich, 66, a former Cleveland mayor as well as congressman, will debut in his new role on ““The O’Reilly Factor” at 8 p.m. He’ll soon appear on a variety of other Fox programs as well, the Plain Dealer reports, sometimes once a week, sometimes more often.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Kucinich told his hometown paper in a telephone interview. “I’ve had a good relationship with Fox over the years. They’ve always been open to letting me express my point of view.”

He has signed a multi-year contract, but would not discuss the terms. As for the possibility of getting rich off TV, he said, “I never look at the world in those terms.”

The deal came together quickly, he says after Fox invited him to New York. “This was not negotiated by an agent.”

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says he’s always been impressed with Kucinich’s fearlessness and thoughtfulness on the issues, according to the Associated Press, which was first with the story. “His willingness to take a stand from his point of view makes him a valuable voice in our country’s debate,” Ailes said in a statement emailed to The Plain Dealer.

Kucinich’s erstwhile desire to impeach former Vice President Dick Cheney didn’t stand in the way of his TV career.

Redistricting stood in the way of his congressional future, however — he lost his Democratic primary to another member last year after the two were drawn into the same Cleveland-area boundaries. Democrat Marcy Kaptur of Toledo took over.

Then again, losing has never stood in the way of Fox contributors: Sarah Palin ran for vice president and lost. Mike Huckabee ran for president and lost.

Pat Buchanan reigned for a time on CNN and MSNBC after losing a couple of presidential campaigns — the butterfly ballot-vote in Palm Beach was not enough to carry him over the line.

And just as MSNBC needed some right-leaners, even FOX needs a House liberal.

And FOX, too, did sign Karl Rove up today for “four more years.”

(He was a winner in 2000 and 2004, though a loser in ’12.)

Original post is Kucinich to Fox: ‘Open’ to His Views by Political Capital.

Photograph by Matt Rourke/AP Photo

Vice President Joe Biden exits a voting booth after casting his ballot at Alexis I. duPont High School, on Nov. 6, 2012, in Greenville, Del.

Republican Mitt Romney may have worked in one last campaign stop in Cleveland today, but he had Vice President Joe Biden on his tail.

Biden, daughter Ashley and granddaughters Naomi and Natalie mingled and sat for breakfast at the Landmark Restaurant, a Greek diner in Cleveland, guaranteeing the Democratic ticket some free media along with Romney in the hotly contested Ohio market.

Biden complimented one man on his “biceps,” and said he looks like he played football. The man wore a T-shirt reading: “King of the Jungle.”

Turning to tow older men whom he said also look like they play football, Biden pointed to his body man Fran Person, who was a lineman at South Carolina.

“Every place we go, we keep picking up teammates. I got you, man,” Biden said.

A woman asked the vice president: “I’m going to ask you one question, Mr. Biden. After Obama wins this election, are you going to run?”

“Oh, I’m going to go back home and run for county council or something,” the vice president and former longtime senator from Delaware replied.

Earlier in the day, casting his ballot in Delaware, Biden was asked by a reporter whether this was “the last time you will vote for yourself.”

Biden grinned and said: “No, I don’t think so.”

Original post is Biden Next: City Council or 2016? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times via Redux

A collection of evening television fare in Ohio was punctuated by campaign ads, in Columbus, Ohio.

That’s how many times that presidential election ads aired on broadcast television stations in Ohio from April 10 to Oct. 22, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG.

More ads have aired in Ohio than anywhere else, underscoring the importance of a state with 18 electoral votes that has sided with the White House winner in 12 consecutive elections.

Ads ran 42,691 times in Cleveland, followed by 32,502 in Columbus, 29,399 in Cincinnati and 25,849 in Toledo.

The total doesn’t include 5,224 spots that have run on stations in Charleston, West Virginia, that reach some residents in southeastern Ohio. West Virginia isn’t a so-called swing state in the Nov. 6 election.

“Ohio has become the epicenter of secret money” from groups that don’t disclose donors, Bloomberg’s Alison Fitzgerald reports. It would take about 80 days to watch the more the 58,000 Ohio presidential ads that ran in just the past month, Bloomberg’s Julie Bykowicz writes.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 181,449 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Residents help clean up in front of a foreclosed home in Miami.

The “Misery Rate” — a Bloomberg index of government data combining consumer prices and the jobless rate — is over 10 percent  in President Barack Obama’s home town, and under 7 percent in Republican Mitt Romney’s home town.

The rate reported today is 10.16 percent in Chicago, with consumer prices up 1.06 percent from year to year and the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent.

In Boston, it’s 6.95 percent, with consumer prices up 0.85 percent year to year and the jobless rate at 6.1 percent.

The index is compiled by Bloomberg, using data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now, this isn’t likely to have much impact on an election in which both Chicago and Boston are true-blue cities in the Democratic Party’s column. But what about some other places?

Like Cleveland, Ohio — in the one state that Romney must win if he wants the White House.

The misery index is 8.68 percent — with consumer prices up 1.38 percent year to year and unemployment at 7.3 percent.

Or Miami, in the state that Obama won in 2008 and hopes to claim again in 2012.

Misery index: 10.51 percent, with consumer prices up 1.14 percent year to year and unemployment at 9.3 percent.

Or Detroit, heart of the auto industry that Obama boasts about saving and Romney wanted to follow a course of bankruptcy.

Misery index: 12.35 percent, with consumer prices up 0.45 percent year to year and unemployment at 11.9 percent.

The presidential election will play out on some important economic battlegrounds, some in better shape than others.

Original post is `Misery:’ Miami Worse than Cleveland — Bloomberg Index in Swing States by Political Capital.