Obey Votes Against Raising the Minimum Wage?

Proving Dave Obey once again plays political games with issues he says are important to him, he voted against a Republican bill to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next 2 years.

Yes, after saying Democrats would attach minimum wage to everything that moved through the house, the Republicans attached it to a bill that would extend the work opportunity tax credit, the earned income tax credit, the deductibility of education tuition and mine safety. Additionally, in order to give small business owners certainty in their tax planning which will help offset the adjustment to the new minimum wage, they included, not a full repeal of the estate tax, but an increase in the exemption from estate tax/death tax which will allow many more small business owners and farmers to pass these job producing businesses on to the next generation.

Obey said NO. He would much rather leave the Democrats with a political issue to campaign on for the next 100 days. Once again, it's a sad, sad commentary on Dave Obey's political philosophy - "say you want to help people, don't actually help people, use issues for political gain instead."

[UPDATE: 9:50 PM 7/30 - FIRST, THE TIME FRAME OF THE WAGE INCREASE, UNDER THE BILL THAT PASSED IT WOULD START JANUARY 1, 2007 AND BE COMPLETED IN JUNE 2009. WE DID MAKE A MISTAKE IN SAYING 2 YEARS COMPARING 2007 AND 2009, IT'S ACTUALLY 2 1/2 YEARS. SECOND, TO THE COMMENTER WHO TRIED TO CALL US ON A MISTAKE, YOU WERE ALSO 1/2 YEAR OFF, SO WE'LL CALL IT EVEN. AND PLEASE STOP REFERRING TO THIS AS NICK REID'S SITE. NICK REID DOES NOT DECIDE, SUGGEST OR IN ANY OTHER WAY DETERMINE WHAT WE POST HERE. I KNOW YOU DESPERATELY WANT TO LINK THIS SITE TO HIM, BUT PLEASE STOP BECAUSE IT'S JUST NOT TRUE.]

Obey Against Improving Medical Records

Yesterday Obey voted against legislation that would help implement a digital, online, medical records system and make it affordable for even rural doctors.

Why would we want to stop filling out so many stinkin forms when we go the doctor or the hospital?

Why would we want to reduce the amount of paperwork which drives up health care costs?

Why would we want to reduce the number of medical errors by giving emergency room doctors a complete medical history?

This is yet another example of how out of touch Dave Obey is and how he wants to make our lives more difficult instead of easier and more affordable.

The Common Man?

Jeff Tyberg recently sent out an e-mail to some supporters. In it, he included a sheet with letter to the editor ideas. Here they are:

1. I was born and raised on a farm, and still occasionally helps on his uncle’s farm. He is a member of Wisconsin Farm Bureau.
2. I have worked as a trucker, teacher, carpenter and cook, and understands the struggle to earn a living in Northwestern Wisconsin because he’s done it.
3. My campaign hasn’t been about money, and we haven’t held any big fund-raisers and we won’t be direct-mailing you every week asking for money. Instead we’ve focused on meeting people and listening to them.
4. All of our staff are volunteers, regular folks with jobs who are giving their spare time to help the campaign.
5. End with something about Jeff being the “common man’s candidate for Congress”.

Other than the fact they keep mixing their "I's" "He's" "My's" "We's" and "Our's" making us unsure of whether this is from Jeff or his staffer, let's compare the candidates/campaigns.

Nick Reid grew up in a union household near Superior, his dad worked in the carpenter's union. Nick worked doing construction in the summers to earn money for college and he worked during college on nights and weekends (doing things like convenience store clerk) to pay his own way, so he understands the struggle to earn your way in life. Nick was a union member and is a lifetime NRA member.

After graduating from college, Nick took an internship at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC to learn about conservative public policy first-hand, then he earned two promotions and finally landed a job as the Press Secretary to a Congressman - the very definition of working your way up and gaining valuable, relevant experience to running a race for Congress.

Nick gave up his good job in Washington, DC to move his wife and two children back to Wisconsin because he believed the people of Northwest Wisconsin deserved better representation in Congress.

Sorry Tyberg camp, but campaigns for Congress are inherently about money. It's a truism - ask anyone who's won a challenger race for Congress in the last 20 years (i.e. Mark Green). By ignoring your responsibility to raise money, you give yourself no chance to win in November. In the same vain, staff giving their spare time is wonderful, but the full-time staff members the Reid campaign has are able to go out and meet so many more people to build a grassroots coalition.

Finally, we find it extremely interesting that Tyberg left off his vocation list, the thing he's done the most during his working years - missionary. Some of his supporters quite vociferously defended his calling to missions work when his trip to Washington, DC was criticized. Honestly, he hasn't spent that much time struggling to earn a living in Northwest Wisconsin the past 10 years, unless you count being Assistant Manager at the coffee shop for about a year - the job he gave up to run for Congress. He's been travelling the world as a missionary. There's nothing wrong with that (in fact we admire it). It's hard work and it is a struggle to raise the support money to pay for it, but it isn't what the "common man" in Northwest Wisconsin has been doing.

Obey's Junkets

Dave Obey has taken nearly $79,000 worth of vacations since January of 2000.

We've talked about it before, but we wanted to provide a little more in depth look, plus some visual assistance. We'll start with his latest trip this February to Jaimaica. While we were cold here in Northwest Wisconsin, Obey was taking a week's vacation (all expenses paid) in Jaimaica. The tab - $5,854.

Jamaica (February 2006)



Also, learn more about the Aspen Institute, who pays for these trips, in this post. Aspen is made up of big corporations and other special interests.



In the first 5 months of 2000 alone, Obey took 24 days worth of all expenses paid vacations to

Naples, Florida - January 2000
Puerto Rico - February 2000
Grand Cayman - April 2000
Vancouver, Canada - May 2000

The bill for these four trips was nearly $22,000. (do you spend $22,000 for nearly a months worth of vacations every year?)



Here are some other highlights:

Florence Italy - $9,745.60
Grand Cayman (again) - $5,457.60
Punta Mita, Mexico - $7,766.27
Jamaica (again) - $5,499.40
Puerto Rico (again)/Bahamas - $6,976.00
Venice, Italy/Paris, France - $6,961.00




Dave Obey has averaged at least 2 all expenses paid vacations around the world the past 6 years. The average cost is around $6,500 to take his wife to exotic locations on someone else's credit card.



So, shed that coat Dave, we're sure you'll be off to another exciting destination real soon.

Obey's not NORML

Obey lauded in this letter to the editor for his support of legalizing marijuana for medical use. The letter was signed by Gary Storck of Madison NORML. Their mission statment reads:

To uphold Madison's long-standing community standard that the use of cannabis is not a criminal matter. To show compassion towards our seniors, disabled, and seriously ill; to support Wisconsin's farmers; and to ensure the personal freedom of responsible adults.

So, Obey has the support of a group that believes all marijuana use should be legal. The most humorous part is that they want to support it as an industry for "Wisconsin's farmers." The saddest part is that they do not view this as an addiction that has ruined so many lives.

Dave Obey represents the views of the liberal Madison establishment, not our conservative values in Northwest Wisconsin.

For further reading, here's their blog post on Obey's vote.

And here's a link to a picture of Storck. You draw your own conclusions about what he might have been doing before getting up to speak.

More on Reid

Here's a post from GOP3 highlighting Nick Reid's campaign fundraising success.

Tyberg's Report is in

$300 . . . Jeff Tyberg raised $300 between June 16th and June 30th.
$239 . . . Tyberg spent $239 between June 16th and June 30th.

$1409 . . . that's how much he has left on hand as of June 30th to spend for the Primary.

Reid had $65,172.

Where's Tyberg's June 30th Report?

We thought maybe Tyberg received special dispensation from the FEC, but our understanding of the rules was right, that he has a June 30th report due. It was supposed to be postmarked on July 15th.

The FEC has now hit Tyberg with a failure to file notice. OOPS.

According to the notice, Tyberg faces civil money penalties for every day he does not file.

Marriage Poll

According to this Rasmussen poll, 68% of Americans believe marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman.

Here are more interesting stats:

67% believe the issue should be put to a vote.
12% believe judges should step in.
5% believe elected officials should decide.

While the laws on the books across the country defined marriage as between a man and a woman, judges stepped in (though 88% of Americans think they shouldn't) and started to undo these laws. Then our elected officials (like Dave Obey) have acted as barriers to allowing the voters to decide. Of course elected officials like Obey think they are smarter than 100% of the voters anyway.

Obey's Message to Pro-Lifers

Obey said to pro-lifers yesterday, "I want to use your tax dollars to fund the destruction of embryos for research." here's his release - courtesy WisPolitics

Obey then basically says pro-lifers are kind of like the people who said the world was flat. I'm sorry Dave, but because I don't want tax dollars to fund the destruction of life doesn't make me anti-research.

"Efforts to hold back stem cell research, with all of the promise that it has for persons suffering from Parkinson's, Diabetes, and so many other diseases, will be no more successful than were efforts in earlier ages to suppress Copernicus and Galileo."

Obey's Spin - Journalists Let Him Off Hook

In this Journal Sentinel article, it is now clear what Obey's strategy is in defending his anti-marriage position. He's referencing his vote for the Defense of Marriage Act and his "personal belief" that marriage is between a man and a woman. Saying the constitution should not include references to living arrangements.

What we are most disappointed in the Journal Sentinel for is letting him off the hook for his earlier comment calling the marriage amendment "ridiculous." If a Republican had called the Voting Rights Act ridiculous, the media outlets would be relentlessly pursuing that story and would be calling for apologies and retractions. Because it's a Democrat and it's not a liberal cause, it's allowed to be swept under the rug.

Reid Pounces on Obey's Marriage Vote

Reid Calls Obey Vote "Ridiculous"

Here's the release:

Seventh Congressional District Candidate Nick Reid today called 37-year incumbent Dave Obey’s vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment “ridiculous.” The vote today marks the second time that Obey has sided with the liberal lobby on this issue instead of his constituents.

“Traditional marriage is the building block of our society and has been for thousands of years,” said Reid. “Unfortunately for the people of the Seventh District, Mr. Obey is more concerned with catering to Washington special interest groups than defending the values of our District.”

This is now the second occasion Congress has debated this measure, and in each instance 37-year incumbent Dave Obey has voted against them. This is despite the overwhelming support of the voters of the Seventh District for traditional marriage. In fact, just last month Obey shocked Seventh District residents by declaring that defending traditional marriage was “ridiculous.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 7, 2006)

“The only thing that is ridiculous about defending traditional marriage is Dave Obey’s position.” Reid said. “The majority of us in the Seventh District support this bill, and come next January we’ll have a congressman who does the same.”

Marriage

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to consider the constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Our Congressman, Dave Obey, voted against this amendment in 2004.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Obey called the marriage amendment, and in our opinion its supporters, "ridiculous."

To us, what is ridiculous is that Obey keeps getting away with insulting our values like that. Our local media rarely takes him to task for his ridiculously out of touch record.

Let's just do a brief overview of why we're at this place - some judges have overturned the will of the people and their elected representatives. These judges say that the states no longer have the right to define who can be married in their state - ruling that marriage is now a civil right protected by the constitution instead of a civil institution defined by law.

At any rate, we are going to be watching closely to see what Obey does today. Will he pull an election year flip-flop? Will he take the weasel line of "I personally believe marriage is between one man and one woman, but I don't want to restrict the rights of others?" Or, will he stick to us being ridiculous for even wanting to pass this amendment.

We're watching.

[UPDATE: OBEY VOTES NO]

Obey's Special Interest Friends

According to www.tray.com, since 1980, Dave Obey has raised nearly $8.9 million to hold on to his seat against some very qualified challengers like Kevin Hermening, Scott West, Sean Cronin and now Nick Reid. Special interest groups have donated nearly $5 million of that total. While we don't have the lobbyist total from that far back, if recent history is any indication, tack on close to another $1 million from lobbyists.

If that isn't a bought and paid for Congressman for special interest groups, we don't know what is. We feel particularly crummy that we haven't done more to push back, particularly when this district is so much more center-right than our far left liberal Congressman.

At the same time, we are excited to note that Nick Reid raised more money from people in Wisconsin in the 2nd Quarter of 2006 than did Dave Obey. That's right, more people in Wisconsin were contributing to Reid the last three months than to any other candidate in the 7th District.

We realize defeating Dave Obey seems like a daunting task. However, Nick Reid is making a real charge at this race, but he needs our help. If you can contribute, you should. If you can volunteer, you should. If you can help at all, you should.

Here's Nick's website to learn more about how you can help.

Many of us remember how close Scott West came in 1994 to winning this seat. He had just $96,000 to work with and virtually no help from the national party. Many of us wished we had done just a little more to push Scott over the top. Let's not wake up on November 8th and feel the same way again.

Democrats Fundraising on Soldier's Coffins

The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in Washington, DC produced a web ad using photos of the flag-draped coffins of United States service personnel killed in Iraq and used it as part of an ongoing fundraising campaign (we are not going to link to the ad out of respect for those who died and their families).

We have debated whether or not to post on this subject because it is a sensitive issue to the families of those who have died in action - many of whom oppose the ongoing deployment of our troops in Iraq.

While we believe a healthy debate about what's happening in Iraq is good for our Democracy and while we believe the Democrats have a right to run a campaign on this issue, we do not believe they should use it specifically for fundraising. Wherever that line is in the sand of good taste in campaigning, we believe they crossed it.

As for our Democrat Representative in the U.S. House, he gave $50,000 to the DCCC in May, but did not publicly call for the ad to be taken down.

Making it Easier for You

Want to tell friends, family, neighbors, etc where they can read about what's going on in the race to retire Dave Obey this fall?

Now there's an easier way to do it. Just tell them go to www.obeyout.com.

The format will stay the same (at least for now), but we are pleased to make it just a little easier to communicate our Internet location.

We will maintain our commitment to scrutinizing Dave Obey's record and his statements as well as information about the two Republican candidates vying for the nomination.

Thanks to all of you who check back here regularly. We look forward to the 113 days left till Election Day.

Reid Wins Barron County "Endorsement" (Straw Poll)

[UPDATE 7-17-06, 11:33 am - The Barron County Republican Party asked in the comments section that we correct the title of this post. We have given it some thought. We have once again entered the world of semantics. If the Barron County Republican Party conducts a straw poll where Reid wins with 84% of the vote and then encourages a 7th District Executive Committee endorsement, is that not really saying the Barron County Republican Party has made an endorsement? We believe it does and would characterize it that way. Therefore, we stand by our original post title because we believe it to be our characterization and not theirs. However, in order to facilitate goodwill with our friends in Barron County, we have put the word endorsement in quotation marks and added (Straw Poll) .]

This was just put up on the Go Nick Go blog and confirms a rumor we heard that Nick Reid won the Barron County straw poll.

The results of the Barron County Straw Poll:

Nick Reid - 46 votes (84%)
Jeff Tyberg - 9 votes (16%)

The Barron County Republican Party Chairman communicated these results this morning and has encouraged the 7th District Executive Committee to formally endorse Nick.

Reid Files FEC Report - Outraises Obey in Wisconsin

For the Second Quarter of 2006, Nick Reid raised $58,441 and ended the quarter with $65,172 cash on hand. He has raised over $119,000 total for the Election, the most by any Republican candidate running against Dave Obey by June 30th.

As we reported earlier, only $36,627 of Dave Obey's fundraising came from inside Wisconsin. According to Reid's report, $25,270 of his itemized contributions were from inside Wisconsin and he also raised $20,670 in unitemized contributions (small donors who give less than $200). While we can't see Reid's database, we can extrapolate that if 80% of his itemized contributions were from inside Wisconsin, it is extremely likely that at least 80% of his unitemized contributions were from inside Wisconsin, meaning over $41,000 of Reid's contributions were from inside of Wisconsin - besting Obey by $5,000.

So, in the Second Quarter of 2006, Nick Reid found more support from people living in Wisconsin, then did Dave Obey.

Obey on the VRA and Next Week

Obey voted against an amendment to the reauthorization of parts of the Voting Rights Act that would have limited the responsibility of states to produce multiple language ballots - a huge cost to governments and a discouragement to citizens to speak and read English. It's another example of his weak record on requiring immigrants to be legal and to fully assimilate.

We support the principles of the Voting Rights Act, most of which is already permanent. There was a lot of discussion on the floor of the U.S. House today that would make you think if this wasn't passed minorities all over the country would be discriminated against tomorrow. Without going into long, boring detail, that's simply untrue (for one, these provisions did not expire for another year).

This was a political debate. Republicans are trying to reach out to minorities and the Congressional Black Caucus is trying to cap the number of district Republicans can gain by putting rules in place that would make it difficult to redraw Congressional District lines.

We are waiting till next week when Obey's Catholic values will be tested again. He will vote against upholding the President's veto of legislation to federally fund embryo destroying medical research and he will vote against the federal marriage amendment again.

Obey - The Hothead Who Wants to Be King

According to this Article in The Hill Newspaper (Washington, DC), Dave Obey got in a verbal altercation on the house floor with fellow Democrat George Miller of California, and apparently it wasn't the first time. Of course, it's not the first time Obey has been in altercations, verbal or otherwise, on the House floor in general. He's a notorious hothead who you can tell is really angry when his head starts bobbin and his eyes start blinkin at warp speed.

The Democrats are already starting to tear apart at the seams at the prospect of winning back the majority in the House. They are measuring the new office space, the curtains and trying to divide up the spoils of Chairmanships and Leadership positions - and tensions are clearly running high.

We know Obey's been running push polling against Reid, so he's got one eye that's looking at Wisconsin, but it's clear that he and other Democrats are much more concerned about the power of the majority. Obey can almost taste the power to spend billions and billions dollars more of our money funded by tax hikes. And make no mistake about it, that's exactly what they intend to do.

Let's remember we need to keep both our eyes on the prize. Imagine how sweet it would be to be the district that knocked off Obey and kept the majority in Republican hands by one seat.

Things have been a little stressful . . .

We asked Hillary Clinton what she thought about all the flying rumors and accusations surrounding this blog, GOP-SPOT and the Reid and Tyberg campaigns and this was her reaction . . .


OK, not really. This photo was sent to us from a friend in Washington who spotted it in Roll Call today. For a stress reliever after yesterday, let' s have a catchy caption contest . . . you know, like "Hillary Sees Ghost."

Statements from the Candidates

We decided to promote these statements from the comments section as they appeared . . .

Dear Obeyout blog and readers,

This is Jeff Tyberg, candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s 7th District.

I want to state here publicly what I have made clear to my campaign volunteers and to Nick Reid personally, and that is that I and my campaign will not attack Nick Reid, and I will not condone anyone who does. My campaign volunteer coordinator is even now writing an email stating that his letter was unauthorized. It will not be repeated.

While my website and email have been attacked rather aggressively, I do not for one second believe it is Nick who is responsible.

It is my intent to run a clean campaign that will honor God and the people I wish to represent.

Sincerely,
Jeff Tyberg

Dear Obey Out (and readers),

This is Nick Reid, running for Congress in Wisconsin's 7th District. I want to take a moment to urge you and your readers to remember that this campaign is about defeating Dave Obey and bringing real representation to the good people here in the 7th District. This November we have a huge opportunity and it is up to us to seize upon it with a united voice, or it will pass us by. That being said, I want all of you to know that neither I nor my campaign in any way condone any comments made on this blog toward my primary opponent. I also want all of you to know that I will be fighting to defeat Dave Obey in November regardless of who his opponent may be.

I pray that God would bless all of you as we strive toward victory in November.

Sincerely,
Nick Reid
Candidate for Congress
www.reidforcongress.com

Ah Yes, Obey Out

Today Dave Obey voted against a bill to improve the performance of credit rating agencies (the people that determine how good your credit is when you go to get a loan).

We'd like to try and explain it, but we can't.

Stay tuned . . . tomorrow the House of Reps will take up the Voting Rights Act. We look for Obey to be on the wrong side of the bilingual ballots issue.

And, a preview for next week, the, what Obey called "ridiculous," marriage amendment. Will it be another NO from Obey or will it be a flip flop for election year purposes. We shall see.

Rumors, Innuendo and Blog posts, oh my

There has been a lot of activity on this and other blogs today where it appears that Reid and Tyberg supporters are knocking each other around a little bit. We even responded to one poster who said we'd ignored Tyberg's campaign - which is simply not true.

We've also heard from a few people that Tyberg supporters are saying that our emphasis on Jeff's trip to Washington, DC was unfair because it was a missions trip. We want to clear the air.

We apologize if the semantics of the trip to Washington caused an uproar (but in the interest of full disclosure, we must point out that on his own blog he spoke directly of going to Baltimore to see Fort McHenry, to tour the Smithsonian's American History Museum and to watch the fireworks on the national mall). For reference here is the link to the post we made on his trip to DC. More important than what we said, this is the link to the conference (called DCLA) Tyberg drove the teens to which includes the following description of the event (which sounds to us like a youth conference, not missions work, but you can visit the website and read this description for yourself) At DCLA 2006, your middle school and senior high students will experience intimate worship, relevant training, and interaction with thousands of other students that will lead to life-changing impact. DCLA is about learning wherever we are, through every experience and in every learning style to help people encounter the Gospel through three stories: God's Story, My Story and Their Story.

[UPDATE 6:55 PM: WE JUST RE-READ TYBERG'S BLOG, THESE ARE HIS OWN WORDS, NOWHERE IN JEFF'S OWN BLOG POST DOES HE CALL IT A MISSIONS TRIP, HE CALLS IT A "WEEKLONG TRIP" WHERE HE "HELPED DRIVE A GROUP OF TEENS FROM IOWA OUT FOR A WEEKEND YOUTH CONVENTION".]

In any event, our point was not to criticize him for taking a missions/conference/youth training trip. As we've said about Jeff, we believe his missions work to be a noble endeavor. We go to church. We like the fact that Tyberg and Reid are both churchgoers as well. However, as we also said, taking a missions/conference/youth training trip on the weekend you can personally touch the most voters in the seventh district raises legitimate questions about how seriously you are taking your campaign. At least it does to us.

We've also heard from Tyberg supporters that it is valuable to have two candidates in this race so as to have two people pointing out Obey's record. That is certainly worth weighing and is valid to consider. We happen to disagree. We believe that having one candidate would free up money sitting on the sidelines and help the remaining candidate to gain valuable forward momentum. You have to look no farther than Scott Walker stepping aside in the gubernatorial race to see the value in that. In fact, we stand by our endorsement even stronger today after Obey attacked the Reid campaign with a push poll. It's clear that Obey has trained his guns on Reid as his main competition in November.

We also have another problem with the two candidate argument because it's often offered in a defeatist manner - many times it's followed with, "we aren't going to raise that much money anyway" or even "it's not like we can beat Obey." We at Obey Out choose to believe that we can win this race and we can raise enough money to beat Obey, but the task is made much more difficult with two candidates running in a primary 7 weeks before the general election.

Switching gears just a little, some commenters have suggested, and we've heard other rumors about who runs this blog, so everyone please read carefully - neither Nick Reid nor anyone on his campaign staff has any control over what is written in our blog posts. We don't check in with them before we post, nor do we post items at their request.

Finally, a couple more points about the contents of this blog (beware we're getting up on our free speech soapbox now, that's why we've made the font smaller, it's like a disclaimer). We stand by what we've said. If you think we're wrong, you're free to post a comment and tell us we're idiots. While we reserve the right to censor patently offensive or profane (our biggest rule, no swearing here, this isn't DailyKos) content, we have not censored any posts for any other reason. A reminder to Dave Obey, Nick Reid and Jeff Tyberg - you guys are running for Congress, not 4th grade class president. If you think our posts or the comments posted here are tough, you shouldn't be running (and back off the soapbox). Commence calling us idiots . . .

Obey Attacks Reid in Push Poll

In a clear attempt to impact the Republican primary, individuals identifying themelsves as from Hart Research are calling Republican seniors in the 7th District and attacking Nick Reid on health care issues. According to their website, Dave Obey is a client.

This is the first time Obey has tipped his hand that he is worried about losing to Reid this fall, so he is going to work to try and take him out early.

Make no mistake about it, when a 37 year incumbent spends money to influence the Republican nomination process, it's a crystal clear indication that Dave Obey is none to confident about mood of the voters toward him in the 7th District. If you want to contribute to Nick to combat these dirty campaign tricks by Obey, click here to do so today. Reid has obviously seized momentum that worries Obey. Contribute today.

Former Obey Staffer Speaks Out - Liberal Obey Working for Special Interests, Not Us

On David Sirota's, former Obey staffer, blog he makes two very interesting statements.

He calls Obey one of the "true progressive champions" in Congress. For the politically uninitiated, progressive means liberal. So Obey isn't just a liberal, he is a champion of all liberal causes. OK, we all knew that, but it never hurts to remind ourselves how far to the left of the people of the Seventh District Dave Obey really is.

Here's what Sirota said about the Appropriations Committee:

The panel certainly does get things done, but not for the people who elected its members. It gets things done almost exclusively for those lobbyists and corporate interests that buy influence through campaign contributions. The committee has become, in short, the breeding ground of congressional corruption.

Dave Obey cannot run away from this charge - that he does not get things done for the people who elected him - because it's from one of his former staffers. As the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, he is responsible for doling out a certain percentage of all "earmarks" - special interest projects. That's good news for his special interest buddies who contribute to his campaign.

As we have pointed out, this year 68% of Obey's campaign contributions have come from DC special interests and lobbyists. This is not a one year blip either, this is historically how Dave Obey raises the campaign contributions to scare off potential challengers in the 7th District.

Obey has opposed legislation that would require members of Congress to put their names on the earmarks they get. Obey says he wants to get private money out of the system so he can require taxpayers to pay for his campaign, but he knows it will never see the light of day in Congress, so he doesn't have to worry about it. He better not have to worry about it either after the pathetically low amount of money he actually raises inside Wisconsin. In fact, we believe Nick Reid will have outraised Dave Obey from individuals inside of Wisconsin. Maybe Nick should challenge Obey to limit his spending to money he raises from inside Wisconsin. Obey's also refused to accept a challenge from Nick Reid to voluntarily limit his campaign spending at all.

Let's spread the word about who Dave Obey is working for in Washington through letters to the editor, radio show call ins, etc.

Our Endorsement

It's official, Jeff Tyberg filed his nomination papers. So, today we make our endorsement.

Here are the criteria:

1. Republican values - is the candidate a true blue Republican
2. Money - the ability/potential to raise money
3. Organization - the existence of a campaign staff and ready volunteers
4. Experience - who has the best story to tell and can sell their ability to do the job if elected
5. Electability - who can appeal to independents and conservative democrats

Both candidates are conservative Republicans and have demonstrated those values in speeches and other campaign materials.

On the money front, it is no contest. While Reid has not filed his 2nd Quarter report yet, we have it from a reliable source that he will have raised more than 10 times as much money as Jeff Tyberg and his cash on hand advantage will be several times more. Reid has a finance committee and a professional fundraiser on staff. So, Reid has demonstrated the ability to raise money and has the mechanisms in place to raise enough to be competitive.

Organizationally, the Reid campaign has the advantage. Over the 4th of July weekend, his team covered 25 events. As far as we know, Tyberg covered zero. He was on a mini-vacation in Washington, DC and we heard no reports of volunteers covering events in his stead.

When it comes to experience, Reid has boots on the ground experience in Washington, DC that would allow him to hit the ground running in Congress while Tyberg was still figuring out how to get from his office to the Capitol. Reid worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation and for a Congressman from Kansas (as did Paul Ryan, we might add). In reading Tyberg's bio page and hearing him speak, we're not sure he ever finished college with a degree, and he spent many years travelling the world as a missionary. While serving as a missionary is certainly a noble calling, and we thank Jeff for being willing to serve, it is not as applicable to running for Congress as Reid's experience (though a case certainly may be made that Washington, DC would be a mission field).

Finally comes the nebulous category of electability. We must first revisit the disappearing act over arguably the easiest opportunity to meet voters, the 4th of July weekend. Jeff Tyberg blew it off while Nick Reid worked it hard. It demonstrates who is taking the race seriously. Next, Reid has a great story to tell. He comes from a working class family, himself working in the unions to pay his way through college. He has a wife and two children, which look great in commercials and on campaign literature (Tyberg is married as well and has worked all over the world). While a conservative, Reid has talked about issues that matter to independents and conservative democrats - jobs and health care. Tyberg has portrayed himself as largely a God and guns candidate - issues on which he and Reid do not really differ. Finally, in talking to those who have met Reid on the campaign trail, the results are overwhelmingly positive. In talking to those who have met Tyberg, the results are mixed. The libertarian and gun owners of America types like him, others aren't too sure.

For these reasons we say, Reid for the Republican nomination.

We wanted to stay neutral in this race. We had hoped Jeff Tyberg would take the Scott Walker approach and step aside for the candidate who had the best chance to win, but he did not. It would have been the honorable thing to do, and we believe Jeff to be an honorable person. We, like many other Republicans in this district are disappointed. The result is that Reid may have to wait till he wins the primary to raise the money he could have started getting tomorrow. It will severely hamper his ability to attract money from the national Republicans for this race. It is unfortunate that though asked to step aside by many people who know politics, Tyberg ignored their counsel. Tyberg's filing for office was a small but significant victory for Dave Obey and gives him a leg up for November, an advantage he certainly didn't need.

Therefore, our second endosement today is for the 7th District Republican Party to call a convention or straw poll or caucus to endorse Nick Reid's candidacy so that many who feel compelled to sit on the sidelines "for the good of the party" can get involved in this race to defeat Dave Obey.

Obey's Campaign Finance Filing - Losing Money

Late Friday, the FEC received Obey's report for the second quarter of 2006.

Here's our findings on this report.

1. Obey has $12,500 less Cash on Hand at the end of June than he did at the end of March.
2. Obey raised less than $100,000 ($88,862).
3. Obey spent $51,668 on his campaign and gave $50,000 to the national Democrats (presumably to offset costs for their failed attempt to win the special election in California).
4. $49,500 or 56% this quarter came from DC special interests and their lobbyists.
5. $36,627 came from inside Wisconsin - we'll be interested to see how Reid and Tyberg stack up based on inside Wisconsin funds.

Now let's look at his first six months.

Obey raised $300,000. Of that money 68% ($204,500) came from DC special interests and their lobbyists. And 82% ($245,000) of that money came from outside of Wisconsin.

When nearly 7 of 10 dollars come from DC special interests and lobbyists and 8 out of 10 dollars come from outside of Wisconsin, we ask again, who does Dave Obey represent anyway?

Marriage Amendment Poll

WisPolitics released this poll saying Wisconsin residents were evenly split on the state marriage amendment - 48.5% saying they would vote for, 47.8% saying they would vote against.

We have two observations on this poll.

1. They called 600 adults. This is a misleading poll. When it is a ballot question, you should screen for likely voters. They do point out in the press release that the more likely voting age group was more strongly in favor of the amendment - meaning among likely voters, the results are probably closer to 52% to 44%.

2. Everywhere this amendment has been on the ballot it has garnered 57-70% of the vote. According to this story, Michigan and Oregon, the two "purple" states most like Wisconsin electorally garnered 59% and 57% of the vote for the marriage amendment.

What does this mean for the 7th district?

We don't have the geographic breakdowns, but we'd be willing to bet that the numbers among likely voters in the 7th are closer to 60% or more in favor of the amendment (with the reverse being true in Madison and Milwaukee) and will remain that way until November 7th.

And we know that Dave Obey called those of us who favor this amendment "ridiculous" but we'll wait to see if he runs away from this statement later.

Road Trip

According to his blog, Jeff Tyberg travelled to Washington, DC from about Wednesday the 28th of June through Friday, July 8th.

Here's our list of 7 observations about this trip away from the 7th District.

1. Tyberg sent a representative to meetings here in Wisconsin saying he was on a short term missions trip. He wasn't on a missions trip. He drove teenagers to Washington for a convention.
2. The teenagers he drove were from IOWA not WISCONSIN.
3. Tyberg said he met with A (as in 1) Congressman on June 30th. He's lucky he found one as the House of Representatives finished its business on June 29th.
4. As far as we can tell, on July 1-4, he played tourist. He can't be serious about winning because there are plenty of chances to take in the sights after you win when you go to Washington in November for a little thing they call new member orientation.
5. Tyberg watched the fireworks in Washington, DC on July 4th while Nick Reid was watching them in Wausau.
6. We find it hard to believe anyone running for Congress would brag about missing being home for the 4th of July. Should have stuck with the short term missions trip cover story. It was better.
7. Jeff said at the end of his post, "it's back to the campaign schedule." Welcome back to Wisconsin, you're making it very difficult for us to keep staying neutral.

Time on our Hands - Obey's really bad at math

Since Dave Obey isn't working in the district this week, because lord knows if he were he'd be getting press on it from his lackeys in the press corp, we have time on our hands. After checking Tyberg out on the FEC website, we looked to see if by any chance Obey had filed his June quarterly report early. He didn't. However, we found something else interesting.

Dave Obey can't seem to get his reports right. Since the 2004 elections, Dave Obey has been required to file 6 Federal Election Commission reports. Of those, he hasn't gotten a single one right the first time. In fact, he's had to file 16 reports (the 6 originals and 10 amendments) to apparently get his math right. So, for every original report he files, he files 1.5 amendments to it to get it right.

If you had that kind of error rate in your job, what would your boss say?

Here's our guess, "Well Joe, you've been required to file 6 quarterly reports since you've been here and it's taken you 16 tries to get them right. In fact Joe, you haven't gotten a single one right the first time. We're going to have to let you go."

Here's the really scarry part, this guy wants to be in charge of our $2.5 trillion dollar federal budget as the would be chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. If he can't get a simple $250,000 quarterly expenditure right until 2-3 tries, what in the world is he going to do with something 10 million times bigger?

Of course, he really doesn't care about spending our money, let alone getting it right. As some former politician once said about federal spending, "$1 billion here, $1 billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money."

Let's stop him from getting his hands on our money. "Dave, we're going to have to let you go."

Tyberg has filed with the FEC

A spot check of the FEC website today showed that Jeff Tyberg crossed the $5,000 threshold, presumably in April. The FEC preparer signed off on the mailed-in rather than electronically filed report on June 27th (last week), and we assume it was posted on their website sometime mid-last week.

Here's the analysis:

Total Raised - $9503, including $443 from Tyberg.
Total Spent - $8154
Cash on Hand as of June 15 - $1348

• 6 people in the 7th District wrote Tyberg checks for more than $200 (the amount required to be itemized by the FEC) in the 1 year he has been running for Congress.
• He did not file a disclosure of where the $8185 went, so we don't know what he spent it on other than his website, yard signs and some handouts we've seen.

The next round of FEC reports will probably start coming out by next Friday. Since Tyberg doesn't file electronically, we will probably have Obey and Reid's first. We are going to publish info on them as we get them.

Reid Qualifies for Ballot

Congratulations to the team at Reid for Congress for filing his nomination papers and for having enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. You may think its a little strange to offer congratulations for such a seemingly simple task that candidates all over Wisconsin accomplish every two years, but since nobody managed to get on the Republican ticket in 2004, it's good to know officially that we aren't letting Obey go unopposed this year.

Reid Files

A quick check of the Election Board website shows Nick Reid has filed his nomination papers today. We'll check back tomorrow to see if the signatures he turned in are verified.

Perhaps the Better Question

Where was Dave Obey last weekend? We want to know if anyone saw him at any community events to celebrate the 4th of July. Maybe he was spending some quality time with his friends and neighbors here (that's his $1 million house in an upscale DC suburb if you haven't checked it out). Or maybe he was still calming down from his tirades on the House floor last week about the two most important things next to global warming - legalizing marijuana or Mars.

So, let's play "Where's Dave O?" If you see him or have seen him doing anything remotely like being a representative of his district, drop us a comment.

Weekend Recap and an Observation

We received a Go Nick Go update from the folks over at Reid for Congress, part of which stated,

This weekend we observed the 4th of July holiday, and all over the district celebrations and festivals were held to commemorate our nation’s birthday. If you attended one of these events chances are that you saw a member of the ‘Go Nick Go’ Team, as staff and volunteers covered 25 events in 14 counties this weekend.

We asked a few friends around the district to confirm this and got reports that every event they were at, Reid for Congress had a presence. If the 25 events are accurate, which we have no reason to believe is anything but accurate, that's an impressive undertaking by Reid. It also means that Reid for Congress made an impression on more than 20,000 people.

So, we asked if they saw Jeff Tyberg or his volunteers at any event. No one saw Jeff or his campaign.

Soooo, then we got an e-mail from a tipster who said he was at a meeting where Tyberg sent a representative. The representative said that Tyberg was still running but that he was leading a short term missions trip right now.

There's the recap, here's the observation:

We at Obey Out all go to church. We think it's right and good to do for other people both at home and abroad. We applaud Jeff Tyberg's commitment to his beliefs and his convictions.

However, this blog is about beating Dave Obey this fall and we're more than a little perplexed as to how serious you can be about running for Congress when you pull a disappearing act the one weekend out of the year where you can shake the most hands across the 7th District.

Happy Birthday U.S.A.

We apologize for the lack of posts this 4th of July weekend. We have been enjoying time with family and friends in celebrating our freedom and remembering those who are fighting for us. We invite your comments on campaign sitings at festivities this weekend. Did you see Jeff Tyberg, Nick Reid or Dave Obey around the 7th District?