JANESVILLE, Wis. -- In what was once a General Motors town, a union town, a city with a strong UAW presence, some people are having a hard time making heads or tails out of the Paul Ryan phenomenon.
Sure, Ryan represents more than Janesville. Wisconsin's First Congressional District stretches from the south-central part of the state, down to the Illinois line and east to Lake Michigan and encompasses the Republican-leaning Milwaukee suburbs and other areas where Ryan gets a lot more votes than he does in Janesville and surrounding Rock County.
But Janesville -- Ryan's hometown, where voters backed Democrat Tom Barrett in this year's unsuccessful effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker -- has supported Ryan, too, even as he's become an icon in conservative circles with a plan to slash government spending, reduce the federal deficit, rewrite Medicare and, Ryan insists, put the social safety net on a sustainable path.
Now that he's Mitt Romney's running mate, Ryan -- or at least the fact that he lives here -- has become the biggest draw in this small city since GM's Janesville Assembly plant closed in late 2008. Though some folks -- especially those with ties to the shuttered plant -- can't understand the allure.
"I think Ryan's a good man, but I'm trying to think what he ever did to really help us, and I can't think of anything," said Dale White, 52, of nearby Evansville, Wis., who worked as a millwright for 30 years at the plant. He was one of the last to leave after the final Chevy Tahoe rolled off the line two days before Christmas 2008.
There are plenty of others in Janesville who take issue with that, saying Ryan was integral to what were ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get the plant reopened.
Last week, as if on cue, it was Ryan recalling then-candidate Barack Obama telling Janesville four years ago that the plant would survive "for another hundred years" with government help. It closed despite getting such help, while George W. Bush was still president.
But there remains the contradiction: A city where liberal former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold was born, with blue-collar GM ties going back to the early last century, has helped sustain one of the leading GOP policymakers of his generation.
Ryan's supporters -- and they're not hard to find in this city along the Rock River -- explain it in the simplest terms: Ryan makes wonkish Republican cost-cutting policy understandable, without shouting down opponents or losing his cool. And he's done it while being responsive to his constituency.
Ryan voted for the 2008 auto industry bailout, as did most Republicans from Michigan. And he's supported federal stimulus-funded projects for Wisconsin while arguing against the scope of the stimulus, a stance that has drawn some heat but which his office defends as "constituent service."
Some have compared Ryan to the man known as the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan.
Not that everyone wants to accentuate the partisan: Kathy Voskuil, president of the nonpartisan Janesville City Council, avoided any discussion of Ryan's Washington policies. But she did allow this: "He's very committed to our community," she said. "He's also a fiscal conservative, we know that."
Tale of 1 city, 2 parties
While his national image may be that of a fiscal policy wonk who chairs the House Budget Committee, people in Janesville know Ryan, 42, as the homegrown congressman whose father, a lawyer, died when Ryan was 16.
His great-grandfather founded a company that began building railroad embankments in the 1880s and today is one of the nation's largest site-work contractors. Ryan graduated from Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville and Miami University of Ohio before going to work for U.S. Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin to start what has been almost exclusively a career in public service.
Young and physically fit, Ryan's been able to tap a degree of support that many just can't understand.
"Every side lets their congressman off the hook on some issues," said Ron Monat, a snowbird from Janesville who now spends most of the year in Florida. A 65-year-old retired former UAW auditor, Monat has a hard time explaining Ryan's support, especially among senior citizens. "This Medicare program to me is as scary as when (President George W.) Bush proposed we go to stock investments.
"How he got so far to the right, I don't know," Monat said of Ryan, "because that's not Janesville."
Shelli Buttke, 68, a retired state computer programmer, said Janesville "should be, because of the GM history, a liberal, union town, but it's not."
Like so many things in Janesville, it's more complicated than it looks. Bring up GM -- and the UAW -- and you'll hear folks talk about a "love-hate relationship."
For years, there were indications that Janesville Assembly -- GM's oldest plant, employing as many as 8,000 people in the 1990s -- was going to close.
Ryan supporter Lisa McNulty, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mom, says there's a split feeling about GM, and "I think it's the same thing with Ryan, it's either love or hate."
For Paul Mines, a 45-year-old former homeless man now in transition housing, Ryan's message falls flat.
Rewriting social safety net programs, Mines said, is "messing with my survival." He counts on government assistance to pay for most of the 18 prescriptions he takes for ailments that include a bad back, high blood pressure and heart trouble that necessitated triple-bypass surgery last year.
A city on the rebound
Local economic development officials are hoping the Ryan phenomenon is good for Janesville.
Four years ago, the news was all bad, they say, as if GM was the only business in town. But county economic development manager James Otterstein said the situation has improved greatly since the end of 2008, when the plant closing eliminated about 4,000 jobs at GM and its suppliers in the area.
Rock County has since attracted investments in advanced manufacturing, food processing and health care, with the promise of about 1,600 new jobs, Otterstein said, adding that the Ryan story can help change the perception of Janesville as a "left-for-dead" community.
David Romstad, a 67-year-old former school administrator, lives across the street from Ryan.
While he was a supporter of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Romstad said he likes Ryan's message and likes how Ryan brings it across. As for Janesville and how it -- or at least some of its residents -- support Ryan, Romstad thinks he knows the reason.
"It looks provincial, but it's not," he said of the city. "There's a lot of America going on here."
Sure, Ryan represents more than Janesville. Wisconsin's First Congressional District stretches from the south-central part of the state, down to the Illinois line and east to Lake Michigan and encompasses the Republican-leaning Milwaukee suburbs and other areas where Ryan gets a lot more votes than he does in Janesville and surrounding Rock County.
But Janesville -- Ryan's hometown, where voters backed Democrat Tom Barrett in this year's unsuccessful effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker -- has supported Ryan, too, even as he's become an icon in conservative circles with a plan to slash government spending, reduce the federal deficit, rewrite Medicare and, Ryan insists, put the social safety net on a sustainable path.
Now that he's Mitt Romney's running mate, Ryan -- or at least the fact that he lives here -- has become the biggest draw in this small city since GM's Janesville Assembly plant closed in late 2008. Though some folks -- especially those with ties to the shuttered plant -- can't understand the allure.
"I think Ryan's a good man, but I'm trying to think what he ever did to really help us, and I can't think of anything," said Dale White, 52, of nearby Evansville, Wis., who worked as a millwright for 30 years at the plant. He was one of the last to leave after the final Chevy Tahoe rolled off the line two days before Christmas 2008.
There are plenty of others in Janesville who take issue with that, saying Ryan was integral to what were ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get the plant reopened.
Last week, as if on cue, it was Ryan recalling then-candidate Barack Obama telling Janesville four years ago that the plant would survive "for another hundred years" with government help. It closed despite getting such help, while George W. Bush was still president.
But there remains the contradiction: A city where liberal former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold was born, with blue-collar GM ties going back to the early last century, has helped sustain one of the leading GOP policymakers of his generation.
Ryan's supporters -- and they're not hard to find in this city along the Rock River -- explain it in the simplest terms: Ryan makes wonkish Republican cost-cutting policy understandable, without shouting down opponents or losing his cool. And he's done it while being responsive to his constituency.
Ryan voted for the 2008 auto industry bailout, as did most Republicans from Michigan. And he's supported federal stimulus-funded projects for Wisconsin while arguing against the scope of the stimulus, a stance that has drawn some heat but which his office defends as "constituent service."
Some have compared Ryan to the man known as the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan.
Not that everyone wants to accentuate the partisan: Kathy Voskuil, president of the nonpartisan Janesville City Council, avoided any discussion of Ryan's Washington policies. But she did allow this: "He's very committed to our community," she said. "He's also a fiscal conservative, we know that."
Tale of 1 city, 2 parties
While his national image may be that of a fiscal policy wonk who chairs the House Budget Committee, people in Janesville know Ryan, 42, as the homegrown congressman whose father, a lawyer, died when Ryan was 16.
His great-grandfather founded a company that began building railroad embankments in the 1880s and today is one of the nation's largest site-work contractors. Ryan graduated from Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville and Miami University of Ohio before going to work for U.S. Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin to start what has been almost exclusively a career in public service.
Young and physically fit, Ryan's been able to tap a degree of support that many just can't understand.
"Every side lets their congressman off the hook on some issues," said Ron Monat, a snowbird from Janesville who now spends most of the year in Florida. A 65-year-old retired former UAW auditor, Monat has a hard time explaining Ryan's support, especially among senior citizens. "This Medicare program to me is as scary as when (President George W.) Bush proposed we go to stock investments.
"How he got so far to the right, I don't know," Monat said of Ryan, "because that's not Janesville."
Shelli Buttke, 68, a retired state computer programmer, said Janesville "should be, because of the GM history, a liberal, union town, but it's not."
Like so many things in Janesville, it's more complicated than it looks. Bring up GM -- and the UAW -- and you'll hear folks talk about a "love-hate relationship."
For years, there were indications that Janesville Assembly -- GM's oldest plant, employing as many as 8,000 people in the 1990s -- was going to close.
Ryan supporter Lisa McNulty, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mom, says there's a split feeling about GM, and "I think it's the same thing with Ryan, it's either love or hate."
For Paul Mines, a 45-year-old former homeless man now in transition housing, Ryan's message falls flat.
Rewriting social safety net programs, Mines said, is "messing with my survival." He counts on government assistance to pay for most of the 18 prescriptions he takes for ailments that include a bad back, high blood pressure and heart trouble that necessitated triple-bypass surgery last year.
A city on the rebound
Local economic development officials are hoping the Ryan phenomenon is good for Janesville.
Four years ago, the news was all bad, they say, as if GM was the only business in town. But county economic development manager James Otterstein said the situation has improved greatly since the end of 2008, when the plant closing eliminated about 4,000 jobs at GM and its suppliers in the area.
Rock County has since attracted investments in advanced manufacturing, food processing and health care, with the promise of about 1,600 new jobs, Otterstein said, adding that the Ryan story can help change the perception of Janesville as a "left-for-dead" community.
David Romstad, a 67-year-old former school administrator, lives across the street from Ryan.
While he was a supporter of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Romstad said he likes Ryan's message and likes how Ryan brings it across. As for Janesville and how it -- or at least some of its residents -- support Ryan, Romstad thinks he knows the reason.
"It looks provincial, but it's not," he said of the city. "There's a lot of America going on here."