You heard that right. Twice.
While the rest of you only have the opportunity to vote for Obama/Biden, people in the southeastern Wisconsin st Congressional District get to vote for Rob Zerban to replace Paul Ryan in Congress. Boohya!
Paul Ryan has had it pretty cosy in the Wi-01. He never faced a seriously funded opponent (in 2010 he had $3.9 million to battle a Democrat with $12,000), never been targeted by the DCCC, and never faced a fierce re-election battle.
More importantly, however, Paul Ryan never faced media scrutiny. Media in Wisconsin is normally rather awful. Reporters behave more like stenographers for talking points and memes. And Paul Ryans district has only the local community newspaper and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (the GOPs BFF). Talk radio is saturated with RW hate and local radio shills are always buffing out the rough spots and shining up their RW politicos who are frequently their guests on the program (Scott Walker is featured at least once a week getting his image polished and agenda fully supported).
Because there wasn't any media scrutiny, Ryan was able to pass himself off as a moderate; a nice, young, good-looking family man who lived in the community. And he won election after election to Congress.
That ended when Paul Ryan introduced his Path to Prosperity The Poorhouse budget was introduced which will gleefully take what's still in the hands of the 99% and hand it over to the millionaires and billionaires. Particularly loathsome is his plan to replace Medicare with a coupon putting seniors (and all their money) in the hands of the completely greedy health insurance industry in return for some semblence of coverage of their medical needs.
Not popular with the folks back home who heard all about it from the national media.
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Nope, they don't like it.
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And here:
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Like any RW extremist who forgets we're living in the 21st century and have recording devices, Ryan tried to lie and say that his budget proposal was well received back home.
Following those town hall disasters, Ryans future town halls were held in private facilities (meaning they were not open to the public). Invitations were required (available through his office) and often some sort of refreshments or lunch were served meaning that anyone wanting to attend his town hall would also have to pay to be admitted. That way he kept out all but monied supporters in the future so lying about his town halls would no longer be necessary.
While this is still an uphill fight and Ryan, no doubt, will have mega millions to fight for re-election, his constituents have now seen exactly who Paul Ryan is and the policies he supports. He can't fly under the radar with a wink and a smile anymore retending to be a nice guy moderate.
More and more will be coming about about Paul Ryan via the national media. While he could hide his record with media assistance in his district and in Wisconsin, national media are not quite so compliant. And his bumbling during the campaign, like his lame attempt to distance himself from his pal Todd Akin, the result of his never having faced a serious election before, isn't helping.
While I'm a couple miles north of Ryans district (my own CongressCritter is the loathsome F. James Sensennbrenner ... yeah, him), I'll be working to see to it that Rob Zerban gets elected. And so will many Wisconsinites. And many will be lucky enough to be in his district and vote against him. Twice.
Contribute to Rob Zerbans campaign via Act Blue here.