Beloit was removed from the district, but the city of Janesville is still in the district.  New Berlin (or at least a big chunk of it) was added, and it votes 65% or so Republican.  The new district voted 51-46 Bush over Gore and 53-46 Bush over Kerry for a partisan rating of R+5 or so.  Hopefully enough of those Bush voters have realized their error.

I still think any candidate other than Thomas should at least be able to get up to John Kerry numbers.  Remember, Paul Ryan was W's leading cheerleader in the House for Social Security privatization.

Yup.  We at least need to make it competitive so Ryan has to burn through his warchest.  With a big wave, it's possible to win the district this year, but we at least need to soften Ryan up for 2008.  Steve Herr will be doing everything he can to make sure everyone knows about Ryan's continuing desire to privatize Social Security.