Primary ballot to include Kucinich

Filing candidacy papers yesterday for the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, Dennis Kucinich promised to be as constant as a star in his anti-war stance.

The Ohio congressman, whose campaign slogan is "Strength Through Peace," said his big-name rivals - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards - haven't kept firm on Iraq, and he wondered whether, by extension, they could be trusted on Iran.

He said Edwards and Clinton both voted to go to war in Iraq. Edwards, a former senator, has said he's sorry for the vote. Clinton has not and has voted to continue funding the war while criticizing the Bush administration's management of it. Kucinich said that although Obama was an early opponent of the war - speaking out against it as an Illinois state senator - he too voted in favor of funding the war after his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Kucinich also said that, more recently, during the September Democratic debate in Hanover, the trio conceded they could not guarantee all U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

"People want leaders who have a core, who they know that they're as constant as the morning star, who have a commitment to peace that's unshakable," Kucinich said after filing at the secretary of state's office in Concord.

"When you look at Sens. Clinton, Obama and Edwards, who can trust any of them on matters of war and peace? Who can say where they'll stand one day to the next?" Kucinich said. "I'm predictable in that regard. People know where I stand."

Kucinich was an early critic of the Iraq war and has proposed establishing a department of peace in his administration. He also ran for president in 2004, when he received 3,114 votes in New Hampshire's Democratic primary.

By BEVERLEY WANG

The Associated Press