Who is Paul Ryan? Rivals, neighbors paint picture

• VP nominee of Mitt Romney from Wis.
• First elected to Congress at 28 years old
• Currently the chair of House Budget Committee

MADISON, Wis. -- If Mitt Romney heeds the advice of conservatives to allow vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to be himself on the campaign trail, political opponents and observers said the country will see a brash, crafty and driven politician who used the power of incumbency to solidify his hold on a Democratic-leaning district.

Ryan, who was elected to Congress in 1998 at 28, wasn't afraid to use creative campaign techniques to convince voters in his first race he was a working-class family man despite living outside the district for years and still being single.

While the Janesville congressman elevated his national profile, working his way up the ranks to chair the House Budget Committee and lead a new generation of unabashed conservatives pushing to reduce taxes, cut discretionary spending and trim entitlements, his reach in Wisconsin isn't as deep outside the 1st Congressional District.

This may explain the swing in polls that had Republicans predicting Ryan could help deliver their first presidential win in Wisconsin since 1984. Within days of Romney announcing the Ryan pick, two separate polls showed Romney/Ryan ticket edging President Barack Obama 48 percent to 47 percent. Obama has since regained a lead in the polls, prompting prominent conservatives like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to call on Romney to unleash Ryan to boldly articulate Ryan's vision for the country.

Charles Franklin, a visiting professor of law and public policy at the Marquette University Law School, said polling before Ryan's selection for the GOP ticket showed a startling statistic: In July, 35 percent of the state could not say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Ryan. That percentage later dropped to 12 percent.

"That's perfectly obvious and you would expect that to happen," Franklin said. "My point is, here you've got the chair of the House Budget Committee, one of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives, and over a third of the state said, 'Who?'"

Paul who?

Answers to that can be found in the 1st Congressional District, which covers a swath of southern Wisconsin, stretching east from Janesville to Racine and Kenosha as well as southern Waukesha County.

Ryan has owned this district since first running for office in 1998. That year Ryan, a 28-year-old who had worked as a congressional staffer and speechwriter, took on Lydia Spottswood, a 47-year-old Kenosha councilwoman, easily defeating her 57 percent to 37 percent.

That was the closest election Ryan would face. In 2000 he defeated Janesville doctor Jeffrey Thomas, 67 percent to 33 percent. Ryan again beat Thomas by similar margins in 2002, 2004 and 2006. In 2008, he faced Marge Krupp of Pleasant Prairie and won easily, 64 percent to her 35 percent. And in 2010, Ryan defeated John Heckenlively of Racine, 68 percent to Heckenlively's 30 percent.

Clearly in recent elections this district has been Ryan country. But it's not as red as Ryan's numbers indicate. Democrats have won here in the past. In 2008, President Obama won this district over John McCain, 51 percent to 47 percent.

Today, in Ryan's Janesville neighborhood, there are some homes papered with Obama 2012 signs.

"This area is basically Democratic," Lawrence Bannek, one of Ryan's neighbors said. "He's a staunch Republican elected in a Democratic area."

Crafty tactics

Clues to his success can be found in that first House campaign where Ryan employed political tactics that may have addressed some of his initial shortcomings. Spottswood, his opponent, said Ryan had to overcome two obstacles to win the seat.

"He was very young and he had not really lived or held down any serious jobs ever in his life in this district. "1/8 He was not married," Spottswood said. "He had a credibility problem."

Spottswood said Ryan honed his image in TV ads and personal appearances. She said during that campaign, she started hearing stories about Ryan attending events with his sister-in-law and her baby in tow.

"Many people thought it was his wife and child," Spottswood said.

"That was a really important step in his mind, clearly, to create this feeling of him being a responsible, more mature guy, rather than a young single guy running around."

Spottswood also said television ads repeatedly showed Ryan wearing a hard hat and a button-down shirt, holding plans while talking to a man. In the background, earth-moving equipment drove around a construction site.

"What was being conveyed in the ad over and over and over was the idea that he had a management position," Spottswood said. "Maybe he's a civil engineer on a construction site.

"The whole idea was to convey the impression that he is a really mature guy who is really imbedded in this district, has a real job in the real world."

Incumbent advantages

In addition to crafty campaigning, political observers say Ryan has also enjoyed the advantages of incumbency, including name recognition, mountains of cash and redistricting lines drawn by GOP allies.

Democrats in the 1st District have struggled to come up with a viable challenger to Ryan. Cathy Myers, vice chairwoman of communications for the Rock County Democratic Party, said the district was simply unable to attract a viable well-known candidate.

Heckenlively was unemployed and did not own a car when he entered the race in 2010.

"We didn't even have anybody running in the end of July," Heckenlively said. "I just stepped up so we would have a campaign against Ryan."

"He's had pretty easy sledding ever since he has been a member of Congress, and redistricting plans have made it even easier," said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

In 2002, redistricting stripped Democratic-leaning Beloit out of Ryan's district and added parts of Republican-voting Waukesha County.

Last year, redistricting maps created by the Republican-controlled legislature made the 1st District more favorable still for Ryan, taking out Greenfield in Milwaukee County and adding in part of Waukesha County.

Last year, the Washington, D.C., newspaper The Hill ranked Ryan as one of the 10 House members helped most by redistricting.

"Increasingly the district has been made more and more friendly (to Ryan) through redistricting," McCabe said.

Ryan has also enjoyed an enormous cash advantage.

In his first election, federal election records indicate Spottswood had a narrow fundraising edge over Ryan, spending $1.3 million to Ryan's $1.2 million through the end of 1998. But in the next six elections, Ryan obliterated his candidates in fundraising. Records indicate that over those years, Ryan raised $11.6 million to his opponents' combined $443,000. In the 2010 campaign, Ryan raised $3.9 million to his opponent Heckenlively's $12,066.

According to Opensecrets.org, which tracks campaign fundraising, as of Sept. 25, Ryan's campaign account had $5.4 million on hand, more than any other member of Congress.

'A great guy'

Gannett Wisconsin Media recently talked to people on the streets of Janesville, Ryan's hometown, and found Ryan is well-liked, even by some people who don't agree with his politics.

"I think he's a great guy," said Brian Tinkler, a technology consultant from Janesville. "His integrity, his character, his moral values. And then when he started introducing economic reform, it was something that made sense. I was really happy to see him joining the Romney ticket."

Sue Abrahamson, a Democrat, also had positive things to say about Ryan.

"He's grown up here, everybody knows him," she said. "What's not to like, he's a great guy."

Franklin said at the time Ryan was picked that it looked like he had added a couple of percentage points of support in Wisconsin for Romney, pretty close to historical averages in past elections.

"In the longer haul, voters are far more driven by what they see at the top of the ticket, rather than second place," he said.

The stumbles in the campaign have also led conservatives to ask publicly, "Is Romney using Paul Ryan effectively?"

"I thought (picking Ryan) was a signal that this guy (Romney) was getting serious, he's getting bold; it's not necessarily even a frustration over the way Paul Ryan's been used but rather in the larger context," Walker said in a Sept. 21 interview on a radio show. "I just haven't seen that kind of passion I know Paul has transferred over to our nominee, and I think it's a little bit of pushback from the folks in the national campaign. But I think for him to win, he's gotta (do) that."

Franklin said he doesn't put it past belief that Ryan will be an asset to the campaign in the state, but he said it's easy to overestimate his impact.

"But asking any vice president to carry a state single-handedly for a candidate for president is way more than any candidate for vice president has been able to do, with rare exceptions."

Ben Jones also reports for Gannett Wisconsin Media