WASHINGTON, D.C. - One is a former Cleveland mayor and two-time presidential candidate whose anti-war crusades and unconventional pursuits regularly make national news.

The other is the longest serving woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, the star of a recent documentary film about Wall Street abuses, and a champion pork-barrel politician who boasts of the federal dollars she's brought home to Toledo.

Veteran Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur, both 65, share a high profile in Congress and many political views. Despite those similarities, voters in March's congressional primary will face a clear contrast between styles and legislative records as they nominate someone to represent a new district that includes both of the candidates' political strongholds.

A GOP-drawn redistricting map threw the longtime friends together as part of a two-seat reduction in Ohio's congressional delegation caused by slow population growth. Because the new district favors Democrats, that primary's winner will likely win the general election. And the loser will be contemplating a career after Congress.

In addition to Kaptur and Kucinich, Cleveland video company operator Graham Veysey is running in the Democratic primary. Republicans in the contest are Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher of Holland and Huron auctioneer Steve Kraus. Libertarian Sean Stipe is also seeking the seat.

Former Cleveland Democratic congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar says Republican state lawmakers committed a "dirty trick" by putting Kaptur and Kucinich together. She'd like to vote for both of them.

"They are both very effective in the way they operate," says Oakar, who is friends with the pair. "Dennis is well known as a consumer advocate and Marcy is well known for being very pragmatic and being able to bring back resources."

Rivalry remains polite

Over the past month, the contest has ignited a polite but escalating rivalry as each struggles for political survival. When Cleveland lost $2 million in federal lead paint abatement money last week, both advertised their efforts to intervene with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The previous week, both attended a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing on the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in the district's western part, which has long been represented by Kaptur. Kucinich – a longtime foe of plant operator FirstEnergy – wants to close Davis-Besse while Kaptur thinks it should remain open under close NRC supervision.

In what could be viewed as an effort to win votes among the ethnic Ukrainians whom Kaptur has courted for years as the co-chair of the House of Representatives' Ukrainian Caucus (Kucinich is a member), the Cleveland congressman on Thursday publicized his efforts to prevent the deportation of a Ukrainian woman who lives in the district.

Thomas Sutton, who chairs the political science department at Berea's Baldwin-Wallace College, was surprised to see Kaptur last month at a political event in Lakewood, down the street from Kucinich's congressional office. He says she has been "very aggressive in reaching out to Kucinich's district."

He said many Democrats who aren't Kucinich partisans are concerned that he considered running for office in Washington state last year, that he left his district for prolonged periods during his two longshot bids for the White House, and that he visited several times with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. They also worry about the legislative effectiveness of someone who launched unsuccessful bids to impeach former Vice President Dick Cheney and withdraw U.S. troops from war zones.

"Kaptur will present herself as someone who knows how to work within Congress to get things done," Sutton said. "Kucinich's weakness is that he has tended to be a lone wolf. He has tended to use his seat in Congress as a platform for his positions on issues and less as a vehicle for sponsoring and cosponsoring legislation that has had a significant effect."

Kucinich says he has swayed the national discourse by crusading to create a Cabinet level "Department of Peace," withdraw U.S. troops from war zones, and establish a government health care system. He says his constituents are pleased by his national role and know he also takes care of his district. They don't mention his pursuit of other offices and merely say they're glad he's seeking re-election, he says.

"If our country continues to waste money on wars, we won't have the resources we need to put people back to work here," Kucinich says.

But as he campaigns, Kucinich is also touting his local achievements. He has vocally opposed MetroHealth Medical Center's plans to cut jobs and services and opposed FirstEnergy plans to eliminate discounts for all-electric homes, and to charge above-market rates for compact fluorescent light bulbs it planned to distribute to its customers.

He says he helped secure $172 million in funds to prevent Ohioans from losing their homes to foreclosure, successfully pushed for construction of a new VA Medical Center Outpatient Clinic in Parma and helped the West Creek Preservation Committee and Cleveland Metroparks get more than $1 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for watershed restoration.

Cimperman: Race will bring out best

Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who alleged during a 2008 congressional primary battle that Kucinich ignored his constituents while running for president, now says Kucinich has resumed paying close attention to his district.

After working with Kucinich on transportation and immigration issues in his ward and finding him to be "very helpful," Cimperman is endorsing Kucinich in the primary. Regardless of who wins, Cimperman believes Northeast Ohio will be well-represented in Congress.

"This race will bring out the best in the candidates," predicts Cimperman. "You can say what you want about any of the candidates, but none of them are phonies and none of them can be taken lightly. It will be a fascinating debate for Northeast Ohio."

Kaptur and Kucinich both run excellent constituent service operations and are members of the House Progressive Caucus, although Kucinich is viewed as somewhat more liberal than Kaptur. Both decry Wall Street abuses that they believe caused the financial industry meltdown and foreclosure epidemic. Both cite local job creation as a top priority.

Kaptur was featured in the Michael Moore film "Capitalism: A Love Story" after she publicly urged people who face eviction to be "squatters in their own homes." Kucinich used a subcommittee he chaired to conduct numerous hearings on the financial crisis and foreclosure plague.

Both are staunch union supporters and foes of trade agreements they believe will export jobs. Harriet Applegate, who heads Cleveland's North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, describes them as "champions of ordinary people over corporations and Wall Street." She expects her organization will support Kucinich because "he is our hometown guy," and her AFL-CIO counterparts in Toledo will back Kaptur for the same reason.

She said Kucinich was among a group of legislators who helped keep a Hugo Boss men's suit factory in Brooklyn open after the company announced its closure, and that he was instrumental in keeping Cleveland's ArcelorMittal steel plant from closing.

"We know we can count on him to stand up for working people," says Applegate.

Kaptur, who was courted as a vice presidential candidate by Ross Perot in 1996, serves on the Appropriations Committee, which allocates the federal budget. Over the years, she has obtained more than $1.1 billion in federal funds for projects in her district, including a new Lucas County veterans center, and the Glass City Skyway bridge, which is the largest project in Ohio Department of Transportation history.

She has also secured money for Cleveland-area institutions, like NASA Glenn Research Center, Lorain County Community College and Case Western Reserve University.

Acting on a constituent request, she authored the legislation that created the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.. She also pioneered the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which enables more than 800,000 low-income senior citizens to obtain government-funded coupons for use in purchasing fresh produce at farmers markets.

"I have already represented four of the five counties in this district and in each of those counties real results have yielded from my public service," Kaptur says. "I view myself as someone who is always trying to make life better in practical ways and putting the pieces together to do that."

Business slow to take sides

Although Cuyahoga County's business leaders are reluctant to publicly take sides, some privately say they're backing Kaptur because they believe her budgeting role will help the area get more federal dollars. They say she's shown a great deal of interest in getting up to speed on issues that affect Cleveland.

In Lorain, city Democratic Party Chairman Anthony Giardini is also in Kaptur's camp, though he says he'd have no qualms backing Kucinich in the general election if he wins the primary. He says he likes how Kaptur has "taken on the big banks" and her grasp of matters that pertain to the Great Lakes.

"I think she is a little more reflective of our area and she understands our issues a bit more," Giardini says. "She has not run for national office and she has focused on what is going on around here. I like her style. I like what she stands for. And I think she has some clout in Congress. If our county is going to get divided up, I want someone who has some clout in Congress representing us."