Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich may be facing the challenge of his career in the March 4 Democratic primary for his Cleveland-based 10th District seat. While Kucinich has had primary challenges before, Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman looks like the real deal: He's collected big endorsements and fundraising dollars in his quest to unseat the six-term incumbent.

Cimperman was endorsed -- twice, actually -- by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and he's got support from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. The newspaper wrote a glowing op-ed for Cimperman just two days after he announced his candidacy in December, and called on the other challengers to drop out to avoid a splintered vote, which would hand Kucinich another term.

In its most recent endorsement, the Plain Dealer wrote: "Voters on the West Side of Cleveland and in its western suburbs sent Kucinich to Washington in 1996. But since January 2003, much of his attention has been focused on an absolutely hopeless quest for the White House. ...The story is much the same in Washington, where Kucinich carries little influence in Congress or among the Democrats who run it."

Through the end of 2007, Cimperman had raised more than $200,000, far more than any other challenger, including Barbara Ferris, who won the Plain Dealer's backing when she challenged Kucinich in 2006. That year Ferris lacked the name recognition that Cimperman enjoys -- he's held office in Cleveland for the past decade. In 2006, Ferris garnered just 24 percent of the vote.

The Kucinich campaign is admittedly worried about the election. In a recently distributed press release, the campaign stated that Kucinich is "facing the toughest re-election campaign in nearly 12 years in the U.S. House," the Plain Dealer reported. The congressman has called on his celebrity supporters, recently campaigning around the district with actor Sean Penn, a long-time backer.

Still, Kucinich is popular in his district, and Cimperman will have to win over a large percentage of the electorate that has voted for the incumbent since he was first elected to the Cleveland City Council in 1970. Kucinich has many loyalists in the district who like his independent style, including local unions, to whom he has endeared himself because of his stance on trade issues.

"Cimperman's chances of beating Kucinich are remote, and, of course, even more remote for the others," said Alec Lamis, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "Obviously, Kucinich has lost support as a result of his presidential bid, but not enough to defeat him."

In a 1978 recall vote, less than year after becoming the youngest mayor in Cleveland history, Kucinich came a few hundred votes from being ousted from office. The following year, he was defeated for re-election and went into something of a political exile, from which it took him years to come back. A loss to Cimperman on March 4 may be a defeat Kucinich never comes back from.

-- Kyle Trygstad