If you were Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, and you wanted to end the weird rumor you're eyeing a run for Congress in Washington State's 1st District in 2012, you would simply say, No fucking way I'm going to carpetbag my vegan ass all the way to the goddamned Kitsap Peninsula, you people are crazy. Now, let me tell you some more about my plans for a Department of Peace...

Instead, Kucinich—who is likely to lose his Ohio seat due to redistricting in 2012—has been fanning that rumor and making multiple visits to the 1st District. The next one is a recently announced fundraiser for a group of Shoreline Democrats on May 22. "He's just crazy enough to do it," said a local political operative familiar with all talk about Dennis Kucinich, D-WA.

Seems so.

Kucinich spokesman Nathan White told The Stranger that the congressman is being courted by activists in 20 states, "including Washington State," and that he appreciates the interest in his far-left politics (which do match up well with a certain slice of this state's Democratic base). White continued: "He fully intends to remain in Congress. He just doesn't know in what district he would run." In White's e-mail, he linked the words "in what district he would run" to an article about an April 30 Kucinich appearance on Bainbridge Island.

Those who dismiss a carpetbag Kucinich candidacy as absurd should keep in mind why this rumored Kucinich run may be possible in this specific district.

Democratic congressman Jay Inslee, the thinking goes, is likely to leave his US House seat representing the 1st District so that he can run for Washington State governor in 2012. And Inslee himself carpetbagged his way into the job; he began his congressional career representing Washington's 4th District (Yakima, Ellensburg, Pasco), and he only moved to Bainbridge Island after losing his Eastern Washington seat to a Republican in 1994.