If Voinovich doesn't run, expect Tim Ryan's phone to be ringing off the hook with people asking him to run. Ryan burst onto the national scene in the fall of 2004 when, as the youngest member of the House, he brought down the house with a speech that was a dorm-room hit. When Matt Stoller hosted the video on MyDD a MP3 and torrent and transcript quickly showed up in the comments as people got creative in spreading the message in the era before video sharing sites. Even though the video is older than youtube, versions posted have over 1,000,000 views.
With the Capitol all but deserted last Monday night, the Democratic "30-Something Working Group" seized the House floor and took aim at their Republican adversaries.
As C-SPAN cameras beamed their performance around the country, Rep. Timothy J. Ryan, 32, of Ohio and Rep. Kendrick Meek, 39, of Florida recited a litany of GOP misdeeds -- mismanaging Hurricane Katrina and neglecting education and health care, for example -- and offered the Democrats' alternatives.
Their conversation even veered to religion, a subject many Democrats are afraid to touch. Ryan described the problems of the poor as a moral obligation and asked of Meek: "Where is the Christian Coalition when you are cutting poverty programs? They are fighting over Supreme Court justices."
The two newcomers -- who have served a combined six years in the House -- are part of a new generation of Democrats who are working to try to topple the GOP. Their fresh ideas, modern media skills and aggressive political tactics have inspired a party that has drifted for much of the past decade -- wedded to old notions and seemingly incapable of capitalizing on White House and congressional Republican miscues.
And the effort was cited by Pelosi as she joined them after midnight on election night. But it isn't just TV, Ryan's twitter account feeds into his Facebook account. And come tomorrow, he's likely to be the front-runner for the Ohio Senate seat.
This is a very significant gain for Clinton as his area is not unlike that of adjacent districts in PA and could have a very positive effect on her upcoming campaign. What's more, he was initially a Dodd supporter, I guess he didn't follow Dodd in supporting Obama.
That brings the count to FOUR since Friday, including:
Former New Jersey Governors Jim Florio and Brendan Byrne (add-on
superdelegates) and US Rep. Betty Sutton.
This left me wondering why the New York Times felt the only story that was worthy of front page coverage on the Democratic Primary was one talking about super delegates leaving the Clintons (Mark Leibovitch). Ridiculous. As Jay Cost has pointed out there has not been much movement in the remaining 1/3 of delegates
Clearly the SDs are waiting to see the upcoming performances in the next 10 states. Bottomline, the Clintons simply have more and longer standing contacts in politics than Obama does after 8 years in the White House, 6 in the Senate and years in the governorship of Arkansas. Of course, in a contentious primary some old colleagues will take the other side but many have not making the race essentially a tie right now - because to win either HRC or BO needs the remaining SDs. If Clinton performs well in Ohio and Indiana, which she is poised to do, I think we could see a real movement of superdelegates to her.
Which brings me to Patrick Murphy, superdelegate declared for Barack Obama from the 8th District of PA http://www.patrickmurphy.house.gov/
Canvassing there yesterday, that area is heavily, heavily for Clinton. Murphy's office on Mill Street is virtually wall-papered in with Clinton signs, coffee shops on his street have Bill Clinton's picture in the window - with Murphy! Going door to door in working class neighborhoods of Levittown, there is strong Clinton enthusiasm. I expect he will be under strong pressure to switch to Clinton after Tuesday.
by steveolson, Sun Dec 09, 2007 at 11:16:48 AM EST
From the diaries - Todd
Rep. Tim Ryan was in Bowling Green helping GOTV for Robin Weirauch for Congress on Friday and Saturday, and here is some video I took from an event with the Bowling Green State University College Dems (Rep. Ryan is a BGSU alum). If you can help us by doing some virtual phonebanking, we'd really appreciate it - and so would Rep. Ryan! Email phonebank4robin@gmail.com if you can phonebank.
We can win this special election - but we need your help!
by Melissa Ryan, Tue Jul 31, 2007 at 06:27:25 PM EDT
EDITED: Tim Ryan is actually a Democrat. My apologies for the error.
Big news on the family planning front today. Representatives Rosa Delauro (D-CT) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) got the House to include $647 million for family planning and pregnancy prevention into the Appropriations bill. The measure is titled: "Reducing the Need for Abortions Initiative." I hate, hate, hate how this is being framed but I can't help being excited at how the money will be spent. It's the biggest shift on this front since Bush came to power.
Here are the changes specific to contraception from Tim Ryan's press release:
Preventive provisions:
Access to contraceptive information and services is an important element of preventing pregnancy. In addition to several funding increases for programs that increase access to contraceptives, the bill also contains provisions that seek to reduce teen pregnancy
-The first increase in more than 6 years for the Title X family planning program,
-Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants - a new Program at CDC - to support medically accurate, age-appropriate approaches to preventing teen pregnancies that include information about both abstinence and contraception, including the dissemination of science-based tools and strategies to prevent HIV, STD, and teen pregnancy.
21 Republicans crossed party lines to vote in favor of the new funding. Now they can go back to their districts and tell constituents that they voted for legislation that will help "reduce abortions." But the real news here is the shift on sex ed and funding for Title X. Both programs have been nearly choked to death under the Bush administration. This is a small step in the right direction.
I wanted to spread the word that Congress Tim Ryan showed up at the Buckeye State Blog this morning for a guest post. Congressman Ryan is currently pushing the Ryan-Hunter bill that attacks China's currency manipulation which has adversely affected our trade deficit. It's a complicated subject which has contributed to the type of job loss states like Ohio have experienced in the last 7 years. With over 200,000 jobs lost in the buckeye state since 2000, and countless more nationally, folks like Tim Ryan are promising results. The Congressman was on the network circuit last week explaining his legislation, but now he's making his way around the 'sphere reaching out so that people understand this bill and see that we can fix some of our trade problems and save some of our jobs.
jeromearmstrong Our Polarized and Money-Driven Congress: Created Over 25 Years By Republicans (and Quickly Imitated by Democrats http://bit.ly/ewXlXI #bblue
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