My incumbent Republican Congressman lost. In Kansas.

[JeremyWestenn]

This thread may be a bit late, but the truth is I've only started posting today. I've lurked for quite some time. This should have been my first post but I suppose it's better late then ever.

I live in the second congressional district of Kansas. My former congressman was literally one of the most conservative members of congress, his name is Jim Ryun. The lady that beat him this time around, by 4% points is Nancy Boyda. She actually ran against him in 2004 and lost by 15% points. She came back running a grassroots campaign relying heavily on newspaper inserts that were voter guides written by her and her husband. I believe you can go to her website (www.nancyforcongress.com) and view the three guides there.

I sent her around $50 and canvassed like hell for her, met her once and attended two candidate forums(The only ones I believe, unless they did not post others on the upcoming events page that I went off of) and absolutely fell in love with her. Well, not literally. She is a moderate Democrat and in that sense she is my kind of Democrat. We share a lot of the same views.

Her biggest issues were healthcare and the war in Iraq. She actually worked in the pharmacutical industry for years and years and as a way of showing how serious she was about healthcare rejected the healthcare package for congressman and woman and their families.

Now, to be honest I didn't think she would win at first. I realised as it got closer and closer that it was going to be close. But as it all came to I really didn't think she'd win. I mean she lost by 15 points! I knew if she lost this time it would be by how close and if she won it would be by how much. But she did it! (Crazy bitch better have done it to, I sent her money) And I am now represented by a Democratic congresswoman come this January!! It's unbelievable, so exciting, and still so unreal! I never used to like telling people I lived in Kansas, a lot of the time I would say " Kansas. A.K.A. the Hellmouth, " and now I look at my states name with a lot of pride. We got a democratic governor, a former Republican for Lt. Governor, a democratic Attorney General(Last guy was nutters), and two democrats representing us in the House of Representatives out of four seats in our state. I've never been prouder to be a Kansan and never been happier to say that I live in this state!

What's most amazing about this race was that Boyda received next to no money from the DCCC and other groups in Washington. She says she rejected any offers other then small amounts (about 50,000 I believe, not sure) because she wanted to run a different campaign. Last time she raised 1.1 million, far outraising Ryun, and lost by a huge margin. I'm not sure if that claim about rejecting the money is true, it could be, could be not, they could have said no, but what the lady did worked. She walked parades, she did the voter guides when people told her that they'd be disregarded(they clearly weren't), and she talked directly with the people and ran next to no negative campaign adds. And she won. In Kansas. She beat a 5 term ten year incumbent in a rematch.

What's your succss story? What victory in your state made you the proudest native there is? I suppose if you didn't have an enormous victory like me in your state you can substitute something else of equal importance!

Look forward to the replies.

And if we all write posts as long as mine we'll have a book by 15 responses. :\ Sorry, it's a habit to type a lot. <_<

- Jeremy

[Kagemusha]

1. Thanks for posting. It's an uplifting story.

The unlikeliest successes can make big differences down the road. That, and if you work for people's votes, they are more likely to be given. :)

[FrenchieCat]

2. How wonderful for you to feel part of success! That's always

a great feeling, isn't it....in particular when you think the odds are against you and it may not happen. Great Post!

and Welcome to DU as a poster, no longer a lurker!

[MADem]

3. Welcome and congratulations.

I live in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, and we just unloaded our feckless joke of a GOP governor (he couldn't do much, thanks to a Dem legislature, fortunately, but what he did do was horrific).

FWIW, Steny Hoyer gave some significant help to your new representative in her campaign. She was one of the signers of the "Freshman Letter" of support for the new Majority leader.

More than half of the incoming Democratic freshman lawmakers are expected to endorse House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) bid for Majority Leader in a letter to be issued Friday afternoon.

According to the letter, 21 of the 41 Democrats who definitely will be coming to the House next year have offered their support to Hoyer, who is competing with Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for the No. 2 leadership post in the 110th Congress.

“Having gone through this exciting and tough campaign season just like you, we know how difficult it was to achieve victory. And now that we have won our races, we must turn our attention to governing,” the letter states. “In addition to setting up our Washington and District offices ... among the first — and most important — decisions each of us will have to make is whom to support for our Democratic Majority Leader.”

The letter is signed by Reps.-elect Baron Hill (Ind.), Nick Lampson (Texas), Albio Sires (N.J.), Michael Arcuri (N.Y.), Nancy Boyda (Kan.), Bruce Braley (Iowa), Kathy Castor (Fla.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Brad Ellsworth (Ind.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Phil Hare (Ill.), Paul Hodes (N.H.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Ron Klein (Fla.), Tim Mahoney (Fla.), Harry Mitchell (Ariz.), Ed Perlmutter (Colo.), John Sarbanes (Md.), Heath Shuler (N.C.) and John Yarmuth (Ky.). ....


http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/15951-1.html

[JeremyWestenn]

5. Awsome!

And that's the man I supported for it to. Not that I think Murtha did blur some ethical lines once, or that he is a bad man and would make a bad leader, but to give the impression of ethically challanged leaders when the Republicans ethically challanged majority was what gave us power would be disastrous and giving cannon balls to our political counterparts. I'm ecstatic she supported him and hope she saw the same logic as I did.

I totally can't wait to see her again!

- Jeremy

[Erika]

4. Welcome to DU n/t

[Liberty Belle]

6. Thanks for the upbeat news. What's the Dem-to-Rep registration ratio in your district?

I have a candidate who lost by quite a bit and wants to run again, a strong candidate, but we keep hearing that with such a high Rep-to-Dem ratio, no one will give us the money needed to run TV ads (a necessity in our district, which is geographically vast and spans two large counties, with lots of desert and mountain towns.)

[JeremyWestenn]

7. Not quite sure.

But from what I do know in Leavenworth county 8,000 people that voted in 2004 did not vote in 2006. So Gods know this will be a totally different race in 08 with the odds in her favor as she most likely will be challenged by a nobody. But I do believe we have more Republicans here then Democrats. I can probably figure that out somewhere online, but I'm not to concerned with it.

I might mention though that in an attempt to oust the other Democratic representative from Kansas the Republicans redistricted part of the 3rd district into the second district awhile back. The thing is that the third district is very small, right next to the 2nd district(mine and her's), and is more or less the town of Lawrence and some surrounding areas. The thing is that Lawrence is a college town, hence what practically constitutes it being it's own district, and subsequently very, very liberal and very, very moderate. So in an attempt to siphon off votes for Dennis Moore they kinda gave those votes to Nancy. But, there's some interesting info there for you.

- Jeremy

[JeremyWestenn]

8. Also going to say,

It's a shame that that guy in your district lost. I can see how detrimental the commercials would be in a geographical climate like that. Nancy however actually had time on her side. First off, we caught Jim Ryun with his pants down. He essentially never took her seriously and thought he was safe and good to go. Only towards the last few weeks did he seem, and even admit, to brighten up and realise that this was going to be a tight race. Part of the one up that Nancy had on him was the voters guides which reach a lot more people than commercials probably do, they were all places in about every counties local paper, and she had been campagining a long time before he even came and started to work here. As in like a year in advance. She was a full time candidate before being elected. I might also add she had an incredibly small staff, like 5-6 people.

- Jeremy

[Liberty Belle]

9. Your Registrar of Voters website should have the registration ratios.

Ours is nearly 2 Republicans for every Democrat.

It's very depressing. Even though our candidate got 11% more than the last Dem who won, he still lost 34% to 62% (with a Libertarian getting the rest). That's for State Senate. Our Congressional and Assembly districts are almost as bad, with at best a 5 to 3 Rep to Dem ratio. We're told it's so bad that no one (at least in California) has ever won a district that's so heavily Republican.

wish we were in Kansas!

One trend we DID have here same as yours is that a lot of Republicans just stayed home, all over the state.

[DURHAM D]

10. You forgot to mention that Bush came in to campaign

for Ryun just a few days before the election-Saturday I think. If Bush has no following in Kansas he really has/had no following anywhere.

[KellyW]

11. She didn't get any help from the DCCC

you said....
What's most amazing about this race was that Boyda received next to no money from the DCCC and other groups in Washington.

Check out this link for what the DCCC spent and who they spent it on:

<http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/x_indexp.exe?DoFn=&CmteID=C00000935&sYR=06>

It is fascinating reading..

[JudyM]

21. I'm not sure this data is complete. I know of a contender that got DCCC $ in Oct, not listed here.

[Donna Zen]

12. Thanks for posting this

I was looking for some good news today. Carol Shea-Porter in NH has a great story too. (I'm not from NH but I was blown away by this woman when I saw her.)

A Win From the Blue

snip...

The last time Carol Shea-Porter had been in the same room as President Bush, she said, her T-shirt's message -- "Turn your back on Bush" -- won her a push out the door from a Bush supporter as she left an airplane hangar in Portsmouth...

The average House seat cost roughly $1 million to win this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Shea-Porter spent just $123,000 through mid-October -- the most recent data available -- which is the least of all 435 men and women who will make up the 110th Congress's House of Representatives...

Shea-Porter wants US troops out of Iraq within six months, a balanced budget, and universal healthcare provided through Medicare. She acknowledged that those goals will be difficult to achieve, but said she's committed to working with members of both parties to at least make progress.
"It's not a disgrace to miss the goal as long as you're working on it. What's disgraceful is not to even start," she said. "People voted for change, they voted for an agenda -- and you can hear it -- but they also voted for civility."
Dean's blanking notwithstanding, Democrats are beginning to learn Shea-Porter's name. The morning after the election, the DCCC called with its first offer of financial support.
"They asked us if we wanted them to pay our debt, and we told them we didn't have any," Shea-Porter said. "But it was nice of them to offer."

Please read the entire article, it is really worth it.

Welcome to DU!

[jgraz]

13. Please stop posting until you have 1000+ posts

Just getting you ready for some of the predictable responses. Awesome post!

:yourock:

[tblue37]

14. Hi, Jeremy!

We must be neighbors, because I live in Ryan's district, too! His loss was one of the best outcomes of last week's election.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

15. Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed watching her numbers come in on Election Night

It was one of those races nobody (outside of Kansas) had a clue we would win.

I'm proud of Jim Webb in VA, my current state and Heath Shuler in NC, where I was born and raised.

[Buzz Clik]

16. Ryun's defeat shows hope for Kansas.

The fact that he won and was re-elected makes me wonder just what the hell is wrong with you people.

Let's hope the reprogramming continues.

[Nimrod2005]

17. Welcome to DU and congratulations....nt

[OzarkDem]

18. Great work, good for you!

Your story is a great example of how revitalized the Dem party has become.

Thanks so much for your hard work, please keep it up!

[gratuitous]

19. I have to say that Kansas baffles me

We have friends who moved to McPherson, and we visited them a few years ago. Everyone (and I mean everyone) we met was kind, friendly and warm. We did a little "sightseeing," just cruising around the neighborhoods, and everyone waved to us. It was a little weird at first, but we got used to it quickly.

We talked with our friends about their town, and they mentioned the oil money that had run the place for the last century. But unlike some other oil-rich areas we could both name, the oil barons in Kansas made sure their towns were taken care of. Oh, the barons were wealthy, no doubt, but they also made sure the town was kept up, the roads were in good repair and the schools were well-appointed. There were live theaters and classical music concerts, all paid for out of extraction royalties.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why Kansas has been so Republican for the last several decades. Their natural affinity would seem to be for a political philosophy where people look out for one another, help each other out, and use some of the accumulated wealth of the community to benefit everyone, instead of a few people hoarding all the goodies for themselves.

I'm glad the Democrats are making some inroads back into the Sunflower State, and I hope to see more stories like this!

[Buzz Clik]

20. I lived in Manhattan for 16 years, and I never understood the politics.

The Attorney General of Kansas, a Republican, was sued for sexual harassment by a woman who worked directly with him for a number of years. The AG settled with the woman out of court, and it seemed that all would be fine (all this transpired very close to his re-election). But, the AG violated one of the stipulations of the settlement by revealing all the details of the settlement. She sued him again.

So, what was the reaction of the good citizens of Kansas toward this AG who seemed to struggle with the obvious constraints of the law? The voted him back in by a landslide. Even Manhattan (home of Kansas State Univ) voted for him.

:shrug:

[DURHAM D]

23. I am from central Kansas.

Moved away forty years ago in my early 20s but my entire extended family is still there and I visit often. You are correct they are decent and proud people or as my mother would say - they/we are of good German stock.

The older generation of my family always had (some still have) a picture of Ike on the wall - the standard picture is of him in uniform. I find it sort of apolitical in that they are proud of his military service and not so much his political service.

One of the themes I have noticed is that Kansans think that the rest of the country (Easterners/Westerners) look down on them. When they vote Republican they feel like they are doing a push back or sending a fuck you message to the rest of the country who they perceive to all be Democrats.

I find Kansans as a group to have very little knowledge of the political platforms of either national party. They don't really think beyond their state borders because they feel that they take personal responsibility and are very resourceful. (This is where one must remain silent about farm subsidies because it does not support their notion of independence. In other words, they are in deep denial.)

My family felt that I had been corrupted because I moved away and became a liberal. On the other hand, myself and my siblings are now dealing with two parents with Alzheimers. Dealing with the complexities of the situation has caused them (because every time we run into a road block I relate it to national policies and their voting habits and their elected officials)to begin to think more broadly. For my entire life we have avoided political conversations in order to avoid an argument. Now they ask me my opinion. It has only taken 45 years.

[Jack Rabbit]

22. Welcome to DU

Type all you like. I like long, thoughtful posts.

I'm old enough to remember Jim Ryun in his previous life. He's not a total loser to me.

But I'm glad he's been retired by the voters of his district.

[mistertrickster]

24. Wichita here. Next time, it's Tanker Todd Tiahrt that bites dust and

Pat "Old Rubberstamp" Roberts in the Senate.

Say "buh bye."

On edit--I didn't even hear that Boyda had a chance until two days before the election.

I campaigned for a guy that ran for the state house against one of the worst of the conservatives. She slimed him with everything she had and he still won.

No guts, no glory.

[Proud MD Liberal]

25. Great post Jeremy - thanks for your efforts

And as a fellow long-time lurker, new poster, welcome to DU :hi:

Since there are Kansans reading this thread, I would like to ask a question. What's the state's general opinion of John Carlin? Thanks.

[Jokinomx]

26. Well it's about time you started posting....:-)

What a great story. Thanks for sharing... we all have a lot of work ahead of us... but at least this election shows that the American system can work....I think that is the GREATEST message to the world...that the people of the U.S. can change leaders without violence if they determine that those leaders were making poor choices for its citizens.

Welcome to the site and please keep everyone informed on how your new representatives do as we all head in a new direction.

:toast: