Action: Nancy Boyda can take KS-02: Let's get Jim Ryun out of congress. Please.

Meet Nancy Boyda, a candidate for KS-02 (Jim Ryun's seat).

I live in KS-02, and do not like Jim Ryun, and I am not happy with Republican control of the House of Representatives.  So I would like to see Nancy Boyda elected and Jim Ryun sent back to the bowels from which he crawled.  (So what if he ran a 4-minute mile.  We were all young, once.)

Here's my plan: I tell you about Nancy and the race, you tell me what questions you would ask of a candidate you consider worthy of your financial support.  I go to Nancy and get answers, and I post them in a subsequent diary, along with buttons to facilitate your largess.  If you think the answers are good and you think that a surprise pickup of a seat from (gasp!) Kansas would make you happy, you press a largess button and drop $10.01 or $20.01 or even $5.01 into her campaign tip jar.  I think this is a winnable race for the good guys, and if you follow me over the break, I'll tell you why.

Disclaimer: I am not paid by the Boyda campaign; in fact, they don't even know I'm doing this.  I'm doing it for fun, for the good of the Republic (we really need to take back the House), and because I'm sick of Jim Ryun being my "representative."  Locally I've been out canvassing in my district, I go to county and precinct meetings, and I'm on the ballot for a spot as precinct committeeman in August.  But this will likely be the most important thing I can do to advance the restoration of the Union.  (Pardon the hyperbole, but we're in a sad state just now.)

And thanks to TL and the KSDP for helping me get this info together.

If you want to read it, here's Nancy's announcement of her candidacy, a speech to give you a little flavor of the issues she's running on.  Short story is that it's pretty stock campaign announcement fare: the evils of big money (big pharma, big oil, big defense contractors), healthcare, checks and balances in the federal government, the increased concentration of wealth, tax breaks for big corps at the expense of small business, fiscal responsibility, big business and cheap (illegal) labor, and like that.  The thing to note, gentle reader, is that they're all Democratic positions.  So far she has gained endorsements from the NEA and VETPAC, and some local papers (including the KC Star, which is a pretty big one 'round these parts).  Plus, she's cycled across Kansas ten times.  A cyclist that dedicated can't be all bad.  And the kicker: Howard's 50-state strategy requires we look at all districts, and this one has some interesting things going for it.  

This district was listed as a likely "surprise pickup" in 04, but Nancy lost by under 15 points (Ryun won with 56% to Boyda's 42%).  But there are a couple things to note for 06:

• Bush was at the top of the ticket in 04; in 06 it will be a very popular Sebelius, with a loverly "DEMOCRAT" after her name, at the top of the ballot.  Nancy won't be seen as running against Bush (although now that might be a good thing, it wasn't in 04), and in the last gubernatorial election, Sebelius won this district by a larger margin than any congressional district in KS.  We loves our Kathleen, and she's a Democrat.
  
• Another reason that Nancy may have done poorly in 04 is that Ryun ran an ad in October of 04 comparing her to bin Laden, and at that time people were somewhat less jaundiced about the way the administration is handling the war.  That might have hurt her at the last minute.  Again, those were different times.
  
• She was unknown in 04 (and yet she got 42% of the vote).  She's been busy these last two years getting to know the people in the district.
  
• Ryun hadn't had his "Culture of Corruption" moment yet: now he's tagged with it.   He has voted with DeLay 94% of the time, and bought an undervalued house from Abramof Associates and sold it for a whopping personal profit of more than $300,000 a year later.  He's also received big money from the Abramoff/DeLay people.
  
• Ryun is a nut case.  And a wiener.  And a religious scaryman.
  
• Thus far Nancy has relied on small donors and herself for her campaign, whereas Ryun has business in his pocket:
  Ryun:
  • PACs:          $546,747        (56%)  (91.2% of which comes from business organizations)
    
  • Individuals:          $418,208        (43%)
    
  • Candidate:          $0      -
    
  • Other:                 $11,550         (1%)
  
  Nancy:
  • PACs:           $195,679        (18%)
    
  • Individuals:        $619,782        (56%)
    
  • Candidate:        $290,294        (26%)
    
  • Other:               $596    (0%)
  
  
• Ryun's also donated money to DeLay's legal defense team.  (Snicker... That seems to be working well for him...)
  
• Since 1970, three democrats have held this seat, but Ryun has held it since 1996.  He's an entreched incumbent.  An idiot, sure, but an entrenched incumbent nonetheless, even though he's been running on a "new faces" plank.  He's not new anymore.
  
• This is a swing district: voter registration in the district runs like this:
  • D: 108,690 (surprised?)
    
  • R: 165,779
    
  • U:  91,237
  It seems to me that George and the Republicans have lost the most ground against unaffiliated voters; picking them off gets us an easy win.  We're also working on GOTV efforts here in the district, both for Sebelius and for Boyda.  If we can just get Nancy some facetime with the people of the district, there's every reason to believe we'll win.  They know her name better this cycle than last, but she needs money to get out there and let more of those disaffected U voters get to know her.  

So, that's what I know about this race so far.  

Jim Ryun is beatable, but it's going to take some money.  I'm working to get more boots on the ground, but people need to see and hear from Nancy herself, and the only way that can happen is if she has money.  We have a Democratic governor, one Democratic Congressman, Dennis Moore, in KS-03), and Kansas Republicans are starting to wake up to the fact that the current republican party is no friend to rational conservatives.  Nancy is quite moderate (this is, after all, Kansas), and she stands a really good chance of taking this seat in November.  We have the wind at our backs.

I've never done anything like this before.  My resources for helping Nancy take this seat are limited, and I thought this might be a good plan.  If you have any questions for me, I'll try to get you answers in this diary (I'm working these days, somewhat, so it might take a little time, but I'll respond).  Questions for her will be answered in the next diary.

So: whaddaya wanna know from a Dem candidate to the US House of Representatives?  What answers might entice you to send $10.01 -- or more, if you can -- to help Nancy kick Jim Ryun the hell out of there?  

UPDATE as per katiebird's request: here's the donate link should anyone care to. And don't forget to add the penny so she knows it's from us.