Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Zerban Considers Another Run Against Ryan

For once, great news in the inbox:
Rob Zerban Announces Exploratory Committee on Eve of Vote on Paul Ryan Budget 2012 Candidate Gave Vice Presidential Candidate Closest Challenge Ever

KENOSHA - As the House of Representatives prepares to vote today on the Paul Ryan budget that ends the guarantee of Medicare and protects tax breaks for the wealthiest, Small business owner Rob Zerban announced the formation of a committee to explore a 2014 challenge to Congressman Ryan.

Zerban, a successful businessman who built two food service companies from scratch and a former Kenosha County supervisor, released the following statement Wednesday:

"Since the election, I have been inundated with phone calls and emails from people all over the First District urging me to come forward again to give the people of Southeast Wisconsin a viable alternative to Paul Ryan. I've been listening to people from Janesville to Racine talk about their need for jobs and economic security, good schools and fair pay, and a strong social safety net for the hardships life sometimes throws our way. The formation of this exploratory committee is simply a formalizing of that process of listening to my friends and neighbors.

My hope is that, over the next few months, we will begin to have a conversation about what the people of the Wisconsin's First District really want: a secure future, not federal austerity."

In 2012, Zerban gave Ryan the closest challenge of his Congressional career - and shaved nearly 20 points off Ryan's average victory margin, even while Ryan was on a presidential ticket with Mitt Romney. It was the closest 2012 Congressional election in Wisconsin and caused Paul Ryan to lose his home ward, his home town, and his home county.
The timing couldn't be better either, given that Ryan's favorability is dropping like a rock:
A Rasmussen Reports poll released this week says 35% of likely U.S. voters have a favorable view of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan.

That's down from 50% who viewed Ryan favorably last August, after Mitt Romney named the Janesville Republican his vice-presidential running mate, Rasmussen says.

The new poll says 54 percent now view Ryan unfavorably.
I'm very glad to see Zerban is taking a serious look at going again. He only lost to Ryan in the last election due to the gerrymandering by the Republicans. Hell, Ryan couldn't even win his own hometown in the last election.

And things are only going to get worse for the likes of Ryan as people realize the high cost of austerity.

4 comments:

  1. Go for it, Rob. I was pulling for you the last time. Ryan is just getting crazier and crazier with his budgets that aren't even feasible.

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  2. Rob needs to run again, but we need to ask our local elections to use a paper ballot!

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  3. Ryan's district is not gerrymandered. It is about as close to a 50/50 district that you can get to, maybe a marginal republican district as opposed to the marginal democratic district it was in the 90s.

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  4. This is great news. National MSM has dismissed Ryan as fundamentally unserious and ignored his budget. Now is the time to go after his seat.

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