Wisconsin Republican insiders think U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan is a visionary who will steer the presidential election toward discussions of the budget, and lead the GOP back into the White House.
Those are the main finding of this week’s "Red Wisconsin" Survey of 94 influential Republicans from around. These party leaders and activists were asked using an automated survey tool what they thought of the idea of a Paul candidacy. The survey was conducted just before .
There was a broad swell of enthusiasm for Paul and the budget ideas he’s associated with among the 71 GOP insiders surveys. A plurality of Wisconsin Republicans surveyed (46 percent) wanted Romney to pick Ryan, and 93 percent agreed that his budget plan, and particularly his proposal for Medicare, will become a major focus of the campaign.
Spotlight for a GOP Star
Many Wisconsin Republicans surveyed relished in Paul’s role as the standard bearer of the party’s budget policy.
As one Republican put it, “Romney is going to be tied to the Ryan budget, so it would be a big benefit to have Ryan himself to defend it.”
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Another said: “Entitlement reforms are the elephant in the room and everyone knows it. Paul Ryan has the plan, which has been passed twice by the House to address these issues. Entitlements and the economy will be the issues in the presidential campaign.”
They also expressed confidence not just in Paul’s policies, but his ability to explain them.
“His ability to truthfully communicate difficult budget numbers in a very serious, knowledgeable yet likeable manner," one insider said. "He is Ronald Reagan like in his communication style as well as holding to conservative principles.”
Besides their enthusiasm for Paul’s plan and they way he could sell it, many respondents relished the idea of a “young gun” campaigning.
“Paul Ryan represents the next generation,” one respondent said.
“I think there would be a real concern that Ryan would outshine Romney,” said another. “Just like rock bands never want the opening act to be better, a presidential candidate doesn't want the VP candidate to be getting more attention.”
Red Wisconsin respondents said their "rock star" would help Romney pick up more voters in Wisconsin in November: 35 percent thought he would add 2 percent to 4 percent to Romney’s Wisconsin numbers, and 37 percent predicted the choice would add 5 points or more. Five percent said the choice would make no difference in Wisconsin or would actually cost Romney some votes.
Insiders see few negatives
Asked to name possible downsides to a Ryan pick, many surveyed Republicans said they couldn’t see one.
More than two-thirds rejected the idea that Ryan “could help Mitt Romney in Wisconsin, but hurt Romney’s chances nationally.” The most popular worry was that a move to the White House would be a step down for the congressman.
“As chairman of the Joint Finance Committee and potential speaker of the House, Ryan can have far more impact than anything offered by the vice presidency,” one respondent said.
Other Republicans worried about the politics of a theoretical Ryan choice.
“I think the Dems would use his proposed reforms of Medicare and Social Security a controversial topic and they would scare the seniors — even though they are completely wrong," one said.
Five different respondents named Obama campaign commercials that would scare seniors as a disadvantage of a Ryan candidacy. One respondent predicted, “Obama ads with Romney and Ryan throwing grandmothers into a fiery pool of lava”
A few Republicans worried about a Romney-Ryan campaign ability in swing states. “He isn't diverse enough to bring in other demographic groups,” one said.
About Red Wisconsin
Our surveys are not a scientific random sample of any larger population but rather an effort to listen to a swath of influential local Republican activists, party leaders and elected officials in Wisconsin. All of these individuals have agreed to participate in the surveys, although not all responded to this week's questions. Surveys were conducted between Aug. 9 and Aug. 10. All responses were collected before news of Ryan’s selection were reported.
Patch will be conducting Red Wisconsin and Blue Wisconsin surveys throughout 2012 in hopes of determining the true sentiment of conservatives and liberals on the ground in the state. If you are an activist, party leader or elected official and would like to take part in a weekly surveys that lasts just a few minutes, please email Mark Maley at mark.maley@patch.com.
Participants in Patch's Red Wisconsin Survey are:
Jim Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, former chief of staff for Assembly Republican Leader Jeff Fitzgerald; Bill Berdan, first vice chairman, Wauwatosa Republicans; Keith Best, public relations chairman for Waukesha County Republicans; Bob Bradley, party activist; Charles Brey, field director for state Assembly candidate Tracy Herron; Tracy Brodd, Republican campaign worker; Paul Bucher, former Waukesha County district attorney and candidate for Wisconsin attorney general; Roy Catron, Tea Party activist; Andrew Cegielski, former Milwaukee County Board candidate; Sara Conrad, party activist; Bill Cosh, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources; Michael Crowley, Waukesha County supervisor; Jake Curtis, former state Assembly candidate; Lou D'Abbraccio, board member, Racine County Republican Party; Brian Dey, Racine County Tea Party member; Fred Dooley, conservative blogger; Steven Duckhorn, former Republican candidate for Milwaukee County sheriff; Bill Folk, chairman of Racine County Republican Party;Elisabeth Friesen, Republican activist; Jesse Garza, chairman, St. Croix County Republican Party; Mark Green, senior director of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and former congressman; Chris Haines, longtime campaign volunteer and former GOP campaign manager; Deb Hawley Jordahl, conservative strategist and consultant; John Hiller, co-chair of Scott Walker's transition team as governor; Sandra Hollander, member of Mitt Romney's “Juntos con Romney” leadership team; Ethan Hollenberger, former chairman of the College Republicans at Marquette University and staff member on several legislative campaigns; Mark Honadel, state reprsentative, 21st District; Marguerite Ingold, party activist; Valerie Johnson, former GOP fundraiser and staffer for various campaigns; Thomas J. Keeley, political consultant; Scott Kelly, communications director for former state Sen. Van Wanggaard; Cindy Kilkenny, conservative blogger; Rik Kluessendorf, attorney and former state Assembly candidate; Dan Knodl, state representative, 24th District; Tif Koehler, campaign volunteer and civic leader; Johnny Koremenos, regional field director for Tommy Thompson campaign; Gordon Lang, member of North Shore Republicans; Chris Larsen, trustee in Village of Sturtevant Trustee; Noelle Lorraine, field coordinator for Americans for Prosperity; John P. Macy, first vice chairman of Waukesha County Republican Party; Kathleen Madden, Waukesha County Clerk of Circuit Court; Ginny Marschman, party activist; Jessica McBride, conservative columnist; Bill McCoshen political consultant and; former cabinet secretary for Gov. Tommy Thompson; Joe Medina, party activist; Randy Melchert, field director for Mark Neumann's campaign; Gerald Mellone, Brookfield alderman; Ryan Morgan, conservative blogger; Dean Munday, conservative blogger; Mark Neumann, U.S. Senate candidate and former congressman; Kelly O'Brien, founder of Shorewood Citizens for Responsible Government; Eric Wm. Olsen, conservative activist; Nick Oliver, state Assembly candidate, 22nd District; Victoria Ostry, treasurer of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women.; Rick Owen, Brookfield alderman; Monnine Parnitzke, party activist; Steve Ponto, mayor of Brookfield; Don Pridemore, state representative, 99th District; Paris Procopis, grassroots activist; Jim Pugh, director of public relations and issue management for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce; Denise Rate, Tea Party member; Bob Reddin, Brookfield alderman and executive director, Jobs First Coalition; Pam Reeves, treasurer, Waukesha County Republicans; Joe Rice, former county supervisor and member of North Shore Republicans Executive Committee; Nate Ristow, candidate for 13th District State Assembly; Brandon Rosner, Wisconsin Republican consultant; Bill Savage, aide to state Rep. Don Pridemore and officer of Menomonee Falls Taxpayers Association; Jim Schaefer, Muskego-Norway School Board president; Josh Schimek, conservative blogger; JB Schmidt, conservative blogger; Christian Schneider, senior fellow at Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and former policy analyst for Wisconsin State Legislature; Ashley Schultz, state director of the Recall Action Fund; Nick Schweitzer, Libertarian pundit and blogger; Tim Schwister, former State Assembly candidate; Dan Sebring, vice chairman, Milwaukee County Republicans and candidate for 4th Congressional District; Cathy Stepp, Wisconsin Natural Resources secretary and former state senator; Jeff Stone, state representative, 82nd District; Jonathan Strasburg, attorney; Dave Swarthout, board member, 1st Congressional District Republicans; Charles Sykes, conservative talk show host for WTMJ Radio; Steve Taylor, Milwaukee County supervisor; Jenny Toftness, executive director of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee; Greg Torres, Jefferson County supervisor; Jim Villa, former chief of staff to County Executive Scott Walker and Alberta Darling; current CEO of Commercial Association of REALTORS® Wisconsin; Robin Vos, state representative; 63rd District; Dan Vrakas, Waukesha County Executive; Yash Wadhwa, former State Assembly candidate; Jeff Wagner, conservative talk show host, WTMJ Radio; Tom Weatherston, candidate for 62nd Assembly District and Village of Caledonia trustee; Steve Welcenbach, head of the Menomonee Falls Taxpayers Association and Tea Party activist; Todd Welch, Wisconsin state coordinator at Campaign for Liberty; James Wigderson, conservative blogger and columnist for Waukesha Freeman; Eddie Willing, conservative columnist in Racine County and executive director of FoundersIntent.org; Chris Wright, Sturtevant village trustee and former candidate for State Assembly; Phil Ziegler, CEO of InPro Inc. and party activist.
That video is a joke - there is no substance and no direct citations to the plans that are supposedly analyzed. It's nothing but propaganda attempting to indoctrinate the ill-informed and non-thinking. Have you even read Ryan's proposal or the actual budget bill that was passed twice now by the House for yourself? If you did, you'd see that much of the bs asserted by MoveOn.org about Ryan's budget isn't anywhere to be found - it's completely made up out of thin air. Why didn't the Congressional Progressive Caucus allow their budget to be scored by the CBO like Ryan allowed his budget to be scored? Sure looks like someone is trying to hide something and isn't Ryan! Let's not forget that Obama's proposed budget failed to receive a single vote from his own party, while Ryan's budget was embraced by a plurality of his party. And I think that's all that we really need to say about this!
Rob Zerban @robzerban #NEWSALERT Statement on our campaign against Paul Ryan: Voters Will Repudiate Radical Ryan Agenda Twice #p2 #wi #2012 http://tinyurl.com/czw29r5 August 11, 2012 CHALLENGER ROB ZERBAN: VOTERS WILL REPUDIATE RADICAL RYAN AGENDA TWICE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE _ August 11, 2012 “Now that Paul Ryan’s personal ambition has clearly trumped his interest in the First District, I have no doubt he’ll find himself out of a job come November. Once Wisconsinites and voters across our country learn the truth about Ryan’s radical plot to end Medicare as we know it, de-fund women’s health care, and preserve tax breaks for millionaires, they'll vote against him not just once, but twice. In the coming weeks, our campaign will work with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to continue getting the word out on Ryan’s indefensible record, and building momentum to ensure victory on Election Day.”
Attack Ryan Parrot Obama Offer Nothing of Your Own It didn't work for Barrett and it's not going to work for Zerban! Wisconsin has already proven that it is smarter than that! Why does Zerban treat his potential voters like they're stupid? It's really quite insultive!
Meet Paul Ryan: Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte http://clmpr.gs/QotAa9 via @thinkprogress
All the lefty website crap that you post is non-stop trash the Republican opponent. What you never see in any of your links is praise or defense of Obama's policies. Interesting, isn't it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madison_guy/7760977660/
Chris Matthews is a joke - he's a hard left partisan. Shouldn't they have their hard news people covering this? Oh, that's right, it's MSNBC - they have no hard news people! Harvey Levin's TMZ is a better source of factual information than MSNBC!
Those are the same clowns that were wearing goofy colored t-shirts, holding blue fist signs, and constantly chanted 'shame' outside and inside the Capitol. How did that whole thing work out for you guys again? And yet you're really going to double down with the temper-tantrum? Hysterical!
One thing that Hoffa thinks could really help the campaign would be an expose on prime time television explaining the GOP plan / vision in detail - like Ross Perot did in 1992. Perot treated the people with respect and believed in their intelligence and ability to think for themselves, as opposed to treating them like morons. And while it was boring, technical, and had a lot of multicolored graphs and charts, independents and moderates, as well as not solidly committed party followers, paid attention and responded very positively. And Perot walked away with nearly 20% of the popular vote, despite making some huge campaign errors. If they do something like this, I think it would be the push that the campaign needs to push the ticket over the top and into victory! Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Obama/Biden needs to go! ROMNEY / RYAN 2012!!!
Do you have anything of substance to add to the conversation or do you just want a public forum in which you can call Romney / Ryan childish names?
Sounds like the rummor when someone said that George Bush was in the armed forces but no one ever saw em.
And Barrett, Falk, and what's her name weren't trashing each other during the Dem primary? Hillary and Obama weren't trashing each other during the Dem primary? Come on! That's a little something called party politics - both sides do it. Did you really not know this?
Please try to respond in the correct thread.
- How do Romney & Ryan explain this - <> They will be flying and landing at a public airport (Waukesha), guided by government air traffic control systems and people, riding on public roads, meeting on/in a public county owned facility, protected by public law and safety personal. <> All this is paid by public tax dollars that they want to reduce. <> On top of the tax issue is the Socialism issue. <> All this is public paid for by way of tax money, shared by all those who pay. - btw - That's the true definition of Socialism. <<>>
Spending by the Obama administration is unprecedented (the national debt has gone from $10 trillion to $15 trillion) and we have little to show for it but more debt. These are uncomfortable realities liberals would rather dismiss than discuss by blaming George Bush, Faux News, or Rush Limbaugh (pick your boogeyman.) Paul Ryan's Path to Prosperity calls for House Ways and Means to decide on a tax reform package with a revenue target of 18 to 19 percent of GDP just like the good old Clinton years when republican spending discipline dovetailed with the peace dividend to produce one or two years of ANNUAL budget balance. It simplifies the tax code by reducing the number of personal income tax rates from six to two and gets government out of the business of picking winners and losers by eliminating most tax deductions, exclusions, adjustments and credits. It repeals the AMT and Obamacare tax hikes. It is a responsible, adult solution to the single biggest existential threat facing the country; out of control spending by big government democrats and big government republicans. The first step is admitting you have a problem
WOW - Cut the work week, hire exponentially more public workers, expand the size of the federal government, and increase the minimum wage. Make the government responsible for teaching people to cook, clean, budget, time management, child care, etc. Are they going to teach us how to wipe our own asses as well or should the government provide every person with a person that will do that for us? Where is all the money supposed to come from that would be necessary to do all of this exactly??? So now Thompson is somehow responsible for murder/deaths just like Romney?!?! This isn't the USSSA - Union of Soviet Socialist States of America. A voluntary work force??? All work in this country is voluntary - nothing is compulsory. We ended slavery long ago, in case you didn't get the memo. And yes, you can live on minimum wage without receiving entitlements - Hoffa did so for a great many years when the minimum wage was even lower than it is now. So please, spare us the bs LIES. Hoffa finds this comment to be wholly incredible and extremely heart breaking if this is where the mentality of this country is going. ROMNEY / RYAN / ANYBODY BUT BALDWIN 2012!!!
Federal Sales Tax (applicable to ALL transactions): 1.85% Federal Income Tax (applicable to all gross income and eliminates income adjustment - deductions, exemptions, itemized write-offs, loop holes, eit credits, etc., except in limited circumstances as is necessary to facilitate fairness): $0 - $75,000 - 8% $75k - $150k - 10.5% $150k - $225k - 13% $225k+ - 15% Federal Cap Gains Tax (short & long term, bracket neutral): 18% Federal Corp Profit Tax Non-Manufacturing (offset only by legitimate losses for up to 3 years carried forward): 18% Federal Corp Profit Tax Manufacturing (offset only by legitimate losses for up to 3 years carried forward): 15% FICA and FUTA Taxes: reform to opt-in programs and set rates accordingly. All other federal taxes, with the exception of the federal excise taxes on petro fuels, alcohol, and tobacco products and trade tariffs/taxes with unfair trading nations, will be eliminated. The Ryan plan could cut spending even more than what it actually proposes.
Randy suspects Hoffa was either living with his parents at the time, with room-mates, or off savings. Minimum wage works for a short period of time for a single person -- as long as you don't get sick.
You already know Hoffa's story - 1 full time and 2 part time minimum wage jobs. About 80 hours per week or more. For the first year, yes, Hoffa did live with his parents while saving up to attend college. For the next two years, while in college, Hoffa ditched one of the part time jobs so he could attend classes. By his third year, Hoffa landed a new full time job that paid $13/hr, but retained his part time minimum wage job and also started his own mobile DJ service. Hoffa's been working since he was 14 years old and NEVER took any government social safety net / public assistance money!
The end of the entitlist culture!!!! Romney/Ryan 2012 & 2016