Sep. 6--Three Democrats--Paulette Garin, Mike Hebert and Marge Krupp--are seeking their party's nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Rep. Paul Ryan for his 1st Congressional District seat in the general election in November.

The primary election is Tuesday.

Paulette Garin

Paulette Garin says she would have no problem being like Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold and casting the lone vote in Congress against a law or program she disagreed with.

During a listening session in Janesville, Garin--a Democratic candidate in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District--was asked about the Patriot Act, which vastly broadened the government's power to investigate people for the sake of anti-terrorism.

Feingold was the only senator to vote against the law.

"This is one place where I agree 100 percent with Sen. Feingold ... and his lonesome one-vote," Garin said, adding that she would be comfortable in the spotlight that casting such a singular vote would focus on her.

"I'm the one who's never been afraid to say the emperor is naked," she said. "At the end of the day, you have to go home and live with yourself."

Garin is a fourth-generation Kenosha resident.

An only child, Garin's father was treasurer of United Auto Workers Local 72 there.

Garin, 46 and single, is a political newcomer, making her first run for public office after, by her description, "running small businesses for over 20 years."

Garin has no local government experience. She taught music in schools and privately, worked as a corporate marketing director and served as associate director of a non-profit organization in New Mexico.

Many Democrats have tried to unseat Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville, a well-funded, five-term incumbent seen as a rising star in the Republican Party. Political observers regularly describe running against Ryan as Don Quixote jousting with windmills.

"I don't chase windmills," Garin said firmly.

"Who is the unifying force of the 1st Congressional District?" she said. "It's me. I know all these people. I'm cross-pollinating across the Democratic Party.

"It's basic networking. You have to keep the herd together. You have to communicate."

As with the other Democratic candidates, Garin has no financial support from the national Democratic Party. But she said she was told by 1st District Democrats "to get through the primary. Then the money will come."

"I'm running a grassroots campaign," she said. "I'm optimistic."

When she's out gathering signatures and knocking on doors, she said, the constituent comments she hears convince her that Ryan is a "polarizing figure. There's not a lot of giving with him."

Asked how she would counter the probable political charge that she is a "tax-and-spend" Democrat, Garin said she would tell Ryan: "You have gone and approved a credit-car war (in Iraq) that our children and grandchildren will have top pay for."

Garin pointed to her accomplishments as separating her from her Democratic opponents:

"I grew up one house away from the city landfill in Kenosha and went on to earn three degrees including a CPA."

Mike Hebert

Mike Hebert says he learned a lot growing up as the middle of three brothers.

"I learned patience--to be patient with my younger brother--and I learned standing up (to challenges) in fights with my older brother," Hebert said.

Hebert has a big challenge ahead of him now--emerging from a field of three candidates in the primary election Tuesday as the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District.

If he surmounts that obstacle, a bigger challenge lies ahead: defeating Rep. Paul Ryan--a five-term Republican incumbent from Janesville--in the general election in November.

"I will be standing up for the middle working class, people that are out there working and struggling to make ends meet," said Hebert, a high school graduate.

He took a leave of absence from his factory job at Ocean Spray Cranberry to campaign, and he said:

"I'm using my own money. I'm putting my money where my mouth is."

Though Hebert said he plans to spend less than $5,000 on the primary, he stressed: "We're in it to win."

He acknowledged that running a campaign on a shoestring is an "uphill struggle," but Hebert said he's waging a "Proxmire-style campaign: Walk, talk and handshake."

He was referring to the late long-time U.S. Sen. Bill Proxmire, who would spend little on campaigns but walk the length and breadth of Wisconsin to meet constituents.

Hebert, 51 and single, estimated he has shaken 10,000 hands in this campaign and his unsuccessful effort two years ago.

"It's back to the grassroots style of campaigning," Hebert said. "My brother (Bill) and I argued for hours about Web sites. I purposely didn't want a Web site because I wanted an old-school campaign style.

"Some of these people are Web site campaigners. They don't get out and meet people," the Kenosha resident said. "They go to a couple of forums and think they're campaigning.