If you’re Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, the secretive efforts by Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature to gerrymander districts to the benefit of Republicans certainly paid dividends.
Paul Ryan will still have a job, having defeated challenger Rob Zerban in his most competitive race since he first won election. What is getting very little attention in the mainstream media is that Ryan failed to carry his home communities of Janesville and Rock County. Zerban won his home County of Kenosha and Ryan’s home County, Rock. Not surprisingly, Ryan has the GOP-friendly redistricting and Waukesha County to thank.
If you haven’t read the whole writeup from Badger Democracy on Paul Ryan’s Congressional race, go click the link and read it….you’ll be glad you did.
Thanks for noting this. I was finding it mind-boggling that Janesville or Kenosha would vote for Ryan when they had a far better businessman alternative.
Maybe we should be more concerned with how people like Ryan have such influence in Wisconsin. What has the leadership of this once great progressive state done to get the disruptive far right influence that now prevails? So many states around us had progressive gains with the Obama win while Wisconsin went backward. What are we doing wrong? I know we are trying to do well.
Good question CK. I hate to possibly break anyone’s illusions, but in answering, what a lot of people are doing wrong is being hoodwinked by their focus on the horse-race and missing the real issues being perpetrated on the electorate by the controllers of both parties (same people if you bother checking), try imagining various personalities who are members of the 1%.
I do admire you tenacious curiosity about politics though.
That’s a really good point Cat Kin. I often wonder about that myself.