page_title: 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio
section_title: District 10
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio / District 10
caption_attribution_description: Dennis Kucinich, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-Ohio)
context_page_description: The 2008 congressional elections in Ohio were held on November 4, 2008 and determined who will represent the state of Ohio in the United States House of Representatives. The primary election was held on March 4, 2008.
  Ohio has eighteen seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States Census. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected in November 2008 served in the 111th Congress from January 4, 2009 until January 3, 2011. The election coincided with the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
  Districts 1, 15 and 16 changed party, although CQ Politics had forecasted districts 1, 2, 14, 15, 16 and 18 to be at some risk for the incumbent party. District 15 was not decided until December 8, 2008. As of 2018, this is the last time that Democrats won a majority of congressional districts from Ohio.
context_section_description: The Democratic primary was held March 4, 2008, the same day as the Texas and Ohio presidential primaries. The candidates were Cleveland city councilman Joe Cimperman, North Olmsted mayor Thomas O'Grady, Barbra Ferris and Rosemary Palmer.
  Kucinich previously stated that he would run again for Congress in 2008 if his bid for President were unsuccessful.
  For 2008, however, Kucinich is facing four challengers in the Democratic primary scheduled for March 4, which prompted him to abandon his run for president. Opponents include Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman and North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O'Grady. Having only raised around $50,000 so far compared to Cimperman's $228,000, Kucinich has since been putting out appeals for campaign funding on YouTube. Since then, he has managed to raise $700,000, surpassing Cimperman's $487,000.
  Cimperman, who is endorsed by the Mayor of Cleveland and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, criticized Kucinich for focusing too much on campaigning for president and not on the district. Kucinich accused Cimperman of representing corporate and real estate interests. Cimperman described Kucinich as an absentee congressman who failed to pass any major legislative initiatives in his 12-year House career. In an interview, Cimperman said he was tired of Kucinich and Cleveland being joke fodder for late-night talk-show hosts, saying "It's time for him to go home". An ad paid for by Cimperman's campaign claimed that Kucinich has missed over 300 votes, but by checking the ad's source the actual number is 139.
  A report suggested that representatives of Nancy Pelosi and American Israel Public Affairs Committee would "guarantee" Kucinich's re-election if he dropped his bid to impeach Cheney and Bush, though Kucinich denies the meeting happened. It was also suggested that Kucinich's calls for universal health care and an immediate withdrawal from Iraq made him a thorn in the side of the Democrats' congressional leadership, as well as his refusal to pledge to support the eventual presidential nominee.
  At last minute, Kucinich took part in a debate with the other primary challengers. Barbara Ferris criticized him for not bringing as much money back to the district as other area legislators and authoring just one bill that passed during his 12 years in Congress. Kucinich responded
  "It was a Republican Congress and there weren't many Democrats passing meaningful legislation during a Republican Congress."
  Kucinich easily won the primary by a 15-point-margin over his nearest opponent Joe Cimperman.
  Kucinich then beat Republican nominee Jim Trakas. CQ Politics rated the race as 'Safe Democrat'. The following candidates ran in the general election:
  Race ranking and details from CQ Politics
  Campaign contributions from OpenSecrets.org
caption: Incumbent Dennis Kucinich
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:03:09 22:56:05", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4579", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "431", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "530"}