Will Zerban, Ryan debate take place?
JANESVILLE — Rob Zerban wants to debate his opponent in the Nov. 6 elections, but it’s unclear whether that will happen.
Zerban is the Kenosha Democrat who is running against Rep. Paul Ryan, R-1st District.
Problem is, the longtime congressman also is running for vice president. Ryan will be campaigning nationally and debating Vice President Joe Biden.
Zerban broached the subject of a debate on some online news outlets this week.
“If he’s going to run for both offices, then he should come and debate me, and not just Joe Biden,” Zerban told Esquire magazine’s “The Politics Blog.”
A Ryan spokesman left the door open to a congressional debate.
“Paul has never shied away for having an adult conversation about the issues our nation faces,” wrote Kevin Seifert in a series of email exchanges with The Gazette.
“Congressman Ryan’s schedule for September and October has not yet been determined, given Saturday’s announcement (that Ryan will be Mitt Romney’s running mate). It’s a scheduling matter, not a matter of willingness,” Seifert added.
“Rob is challenging Ryan to debate him,” Zerban spokesman Karthik Ganapathy confirmed.
Ganapathy said the Zerban campaign has not sent that challenge to the Ryan campaign. He said a news outlet, the Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch, would.
Patch Editor Heather Asiyanbi said she contacted both campaigns this summer, before the vice presidential announcement, and offered to sponsor a debate.
Asiyanbi said the Ryan campaign gave her a tentative date of Oct. 11.
Asiyanbi said she doesn’t know how feasible a debate is now. She hasn’t contacted either campaign since the vice presidential announcement.
Some might say a debate would lend legitimacy and publicity to Zerban at a time the national spotlight is focused on Ryan. But longtime political observer and UW-Whitewater professor emeritus John Kozlowicz said a debate could help Ryan.
“It does clear him a little bit on this absentee-campaign charge,” Kozlowicz said.
Kozlowicz said it would be fairly easy for Ryan to piggyback a debate or 1st District appearance on top of a vice presidential stop in Wisconsin or elsewhere in the Midwest.
Debate or not, Kozlowicz said the well ensconced congressman should have little difficulty defeating Zerban.
“I think he probably could get elected without himself doing much,” and it’s likely some of his political staff will do some campaigning, he said.
If Ryan wins both races on the Nov. 6 ballot, state law requires the congressional win be voided. The governor would call a special election, probably sometime next spring, said Reid Magney, spokesman for the Government Accountability Board.
Seifert noted Ryan did not neglect the district in the weeks preceding Romney’s announcement.
“He has spent much of the spring and summer months in Wisconsin—holding listening sessions in May, supporting Gov. Scott Walker and other Wisconsin Republican candidates in June, attending multiple Fourth of July parades and county fairs and frequently meeting 1st District residents to hear about their concerns,” Seifert wrote.
“Janesville is Paul’s home,” he added. “… We look forward to welcoming him back to the Badger State again soon.”
Aug 28, 2012 at 4:32 a.m.
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I don't care who it is. We pay a lot of money for these guys to have their careers in Washington and the consequences of their decisions are about the onlyu thing trickle down on us. It matters. Voters deserve to know how their representatives think on their feet. That's the point of the debate-your handlers can't help you and you can't get away with repeating the same sound bites all the time. I'm sick to death of that, and all the redundant mail and third party ads and robocalls. I'm at a point where if any candidate mentions a cliff or a can in the road they're off my list. I don't care how smooth Ryan is or how "nice" he is or what Zerban has on his website. Not one of you posters here would do very well if you weren't typing on a keyboard and had to debate. Same for the candidates. Give these people some respect. As for Ryan he hasn't had his heart in this district since 1998. He has always had weak running mates. I used to vote for him because he was the lesser of two evils but I stopped that after the last election. I look forward to seeing him campaign. Actually I am enjoying this presidential campaign because out of his small pond he is looking a lot like the rest of the fish.
Aug 25, 2012 at 10:10 p.m.
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Still waiting for Zerban to not sound like
Nancy Pelosi... The fact Zerban won't beat someone who has better things to do for the ENTIRE nation than campaign for his congressional seat should tell you a lot about how well liked Congressman Ryan is in the district and how much of a left wing lunatic Zerban is.
Aug 19, 2012 at 10:56 p.m.
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Still waiting for Rob to make his website about him and not about Ryan.
Aug 19, 2012 at 9:44 p.m.
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wislady, """Relax, it will give Zerban time to study."""
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The problem for you wislady, Rob is too smart to study your sources (Fox News, Breitbart, etc...).
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Perhaps if he could site some "facts" proven to be a lie three days prior LIKE YOU DID/DO, you could change your support.
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Nah, then the truth might begin to matter for you.
Aug 19, 2012 at 9:41 p.m.
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wislady, """Maybe Rob should look in a mirror and debate himself, it's the only way he has a chance of winning a debate."""
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Did Fox tell you that?
Aug 19, 2012 at 8:51 p.m.
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If he wants to run for both offices Ryan needs to give both offices his undivided attention, unless he thinks the Wisconsin position is not important. I want someone who will not put Wisconsin on the back burner and expect his job to be given back to him if he loses the vice presidency. I have voted 4 him before, but I will not be voting for him. I have read his record., I have studied his voting record. He is in my book not for the people. He is totally for himself.
Aug 19, 2012 at 8:35 p.m.
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jason--- it took THIS to make you think Ryan doesn't care about the 1st District??? He only cares about big insurance and pharma and the others who donate to his elections.
Aug 19, 2012 at 1:35 p.m.
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Has Ryan said NO to a debate, or has it just not been scheduled?
Relax, it will give Zerban time to study.
Aug 19, 2012 at 1:03 p.m.
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If Ryan can't debate his congressional opponent, then he shouldn't be on the ballot. If you want to run for Congress and the Vice Presidency, then you campaign for both. I don't care if this is Ryan or a Democrat, no one should get a free pass to election for doing nothing. If there is no 1st district debate, then that tells me Ryan cares little for the district, otherwise give up the congressional seat and focus on the Vice President.
Aug 19, 2012 at 11:05 a.m.
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Just your nomal classy self wis lady.
Aug 18, 2012 at 10:11 p.m.
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Maybe Rob should look in a mirror and debate himself, it's the only way he has a chance of winning a debate.
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