Rob Zerban is running against Paul Ryan

[UCmeNdc]

Rob Zerban is running against Paul Ryan give him a little love.

http://www.robzerban.com/

[Iggy]

1. i Get It, But

what took so long for Dems in WI to challenge Ryan's seat?

he's been in office since 1998, and I assume he's been an assclown from day one.

???

[murielm99]

2. I have family in Wisconsin -

all Democrats, of course. They say he is very popular in his district, which makes no sense. Unemployment is high there, and he as consistently voted against the interests of his constituents.

[Iggy]

4. LOL... Well, I've Been Looking at WI

since the whole recall effort got going-- trying to figure out just how a historically blue union state
suddenly turns purple-red.

any idea why this happened? (i've got my own idea, but would like to hear yours).

[Scuba]

6. Money. They brought right-wing radio, they bought the newspapers and they convinced....

... a bunch of middle class people that civil servants and the poor were ripping them off. They used fear, hate, greed and envy to bring their side to the polls.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin was busy polishing their concession-speech writing skills. It took tens of thousands of protesters in the streets of Madison for the Democratic Party to even notice that Walker and RoJo had won their elections.

We dumped Russ Feingold for RoJo, to our everlasting shame.




On edit: we now have a lot of new blood on our side; people who were awakened by the right's power grab. Rob Zerban is a worthy candidate and deserves our support regardless of who he's running against.

[Iggy]

7. MONEY - Yes, But that is only one half of the equation

here's part of the context for me:

back in 2009, the Repuglican Governor's Assoc. got together and put together a plan and some funding
to unseat TEN incumbent democratic governors. this included Wisconsin and Michigan, Ohio as well, I
believe.

they were successful in flipping nine of these governor's seats.

WTF?

what exactly aided this sudden interest in voting for repug governors in blue, pro-union states?

Bigotry. These feeble minded union guys in WI and MI bought into the anti-Obama, hate Obama
propaganda they hear on the radio every day and see on the Tee vee.

thus, IMHO, these union voters are about as ignorant as it gets. when these states are converted to right to
work (for less) states and they lose 40% of their pay and have pay more for their family's health
insurance, we'll see how cute they think it is then to vote against their own interests.

[Scuba]

8. Recommend you edit your post. Smearing union members with such a broad brush will likely....

... result in an alert on your thread.

You are correct, that many working people, union members included, fell for the trick.

[Iggy]

10. Nope

I'm a former UAW member born and raised in a union family. I've seen racism in the
workplace.

I'm calling bigotry when I see it-- unless someone else fully explains to me why union members
in midwest states are voting for repug governors.. and why some this November will vote
against Obama, not for Rmoney.

thanks for the heads up-- but I'm tired of the rose colored glasses.

[dragonlady]

3. From an interview with Rob Zerban last February

I posted this on DU a while ago and think it deserves another look:

A big shift has taken place in the way people feel about Paul Ryan. Social Security and Medicare are “the third rail” of politics meaning you get shocked if you touch them. This happened to Ryan. While Ryan has gotten 60% support in the past, he is now polling easily in the 40s after our message is heard. Independents prefer me by a 3 to 1 margin. Ryan will move even lower because national Democrats, including President Obama, have taken a strong stand to protect retirement security and our social safety net. The more Democrats focus their fire on Ryan, the more people in the district become aware of his radical agenda. It also doesn’t help that Ryan has presided over one of the most unpopular Congresses in history with 91% disapproval.

The reason Ryan has been able to win is because he hasn’t had a strong Democratic challenger. The First District of Wisconsin was, and is, a seat Democrats can win. This district was previously represented by Democrats including Les Aspin, Clinton’s Defense Secretary, and Peter Barca who is a leading legislator now in state government. The district also supported Obama in 2008 with 52% of the vote. Ryan had opponents before that raised less than $20,000. There is nothing wrong with good people running for office, but against someone like Ryan, it takes a much larger effort than anyone can do on their own. It will take progressives across this country to come together to defeat Ryan. I believe we could have won this election in 2008 against Ryan if we had tried. I am here to make sure we don’t waste that opportunity again.

http://blueamerica.crooksandliars.com/howie-klein/blue-america-welcomes-rob-zerban

He has raised over a million dollars so far, which is many times more than Ryan's other opponents raised over a whole campaign, so Rob Zerban really is a serious challenger and deserves our support.

[Iggy]

5. Thank You

this gets to a larger point-- which IMHO has been obvious since the democratic party could not figure
out how to beat liar, war monger george bush in 2004-- the democratic party is run by amateurs who don't
really know what they are doing.

they're weak at political strategy and they're weak at political propaganda.

they threw Howard Dean (a true reformer that scared them) under the bus. it's been downhill ever since.

[Scuba]

9. An excellent criticism.