Lora Chamberlain stepped up to the mike on the Gunther Murphy’s stage, excited to report the latest returns for her presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich: Hawaii, 30 percent; Idaho, 6 percent; Utah, 7 percent–states, it’s true, about as sparsely populated as the fund-raiser Chamberlain was hosting. But though only 20 or so people showed that Thursday night, Chamberlain believes there’s still a case to be made for supporting her man, at least until the Democratic National Convention. “In the primaries we’re not in danger of Bush winning,” she says. “November is when we save America from Bush. Before that we have to determine who it is that really has Americans’ hearts. And for me it’s Dennis Kucinich.”
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Chamberlain, a 48-year-old physician, says it was Kucinich’s outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq that got her attention. “I didn’t see any of the other presidential candidates show up to an antiwar rally,” she says, “and I was at almost every single one. I did see Dennis.”
For many Democrats, electability is a key consideration in the upcoming election. The prospect of four lame-duck years of George W. Bush; the real possibility that Republicans may gain four Senate seats this election cycle; the political ramifications of recently gerrymandered congressional districts and what this concentration of power could mean for federal court appointments–all of this gives Democratic thinking a strategic cast.
