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.