Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
JANESVILLE, Wis. — When dozens of high school students from across Wisconsin marched through his hometown, chanting his name and demanding new gun control laws, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, was not around to hear them, having just wrapped up a trip to the Czech Republic.
But Randy Bryce was.
Bryce, for those who don’t watch MSNBC, is better known by his Twitter handle, “Iron Stache” — a nod to his occupation (ironworker) and his thick horseshoe mustache. A Democrat, he has become a liberal media darling of sorts, as he seeks to do the unthinkable: unseat Ryan in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District this fall.
But Bryce is not the only candidate hoping to dethrone a congressional king. Another Democrat, a former schoolteacher named Cathy Myers, is also running for her party’s nomination. She is irked that national Democrats and progressives — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former presidential candidate — have thrown their weight behind Bryce.
And on the right, Republicans are confronting an embarrassing spectacle: A white nationalist and anti-Semite, Paul Nehlen, who lost to Ryan by 68 points in the 2016 Republican primary, is running again, this time flaunting his bigotry to gain a national following. His Twitter account was suspended in February after he used it to make racist comments about Meghan Markle, the fiancée of Prince Harry.
“It’s a circus,” sighed Mark Graul, a seasoned Republican strategist here. “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Ryan, meanwhile, has been coy about his intentions. After passing a landmark tax overhaul that fulfilled a career-long dream, he has not yet announced his candidacy for re-election, saying he will make a decision after consulting his wife in the spring. That has prompted speculation that he will retire, which his aides have dismissed as nonsense.
In another election year, Bryce and the rest might be little more than a nuisance for Ryan, who has nearly $10 million in his campaign chest and is one of the most powerful men in Washington. Nehlen, strategists in both parties agree, is clearly headed for another trouncing.
But in an election cycle when Democrats have scored victories in places like Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania and even deep-red Alabama, some analysts say it would be a mistake for the speaker to coast, especially against Bryce, who has captured the attention of Washington and Hollywood and had raised $4.75 million by the end of March, according to campaign officials.
History shows it is not impossible to knock off a congressional leader. In 1994, when Republicans swept the House during the first midterm election of Bill Clinton’s presidency, they also swept the Democratic speaker, Thomas S. Foley, out of office.
“Randy Bryce is a more formidable candidate on the resource side and the notoriety side than any opponent Ryan has faced,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, run out of Milwaukee. “And if it’s a wave election, who knows?”
At 48, Ryan has represented this corner of southeastern Wisconsin for nearly two decades. People here still remember him as a fresh-faced young congressman with a compelling personal story. His father died when he was 16, and he saved his Social Security benefits to pay for college. He is viewed as a nice guy and a family man.
But Janesville, a blue-collar community that was hit hard when the local General Motors plant shut down in 2009, has never been solid Ryan territory, and some in his hometown say that since he became speaker — and especially since President Donald Trump took the White House — Ryan has lost his way. He was critical of Trump during the campaign. He largely holds his tongue now.
“I’m very disappointed in him,” Steve Johnson, 69, a former Janesville School District administrator, said while drinking coffee with a friend at Mocha Moment, a local cafe. Johnson, who says he votes Republican about half of the time, has known the speaker since Ryan was a student council representative and has voted for him for years.
“He always had a good head on his shoulders, a good set of values,” Johnson said. “I supported him for all this time, but I won’t now, especially since he won’t stand up to Trump. That’s a big surprise to me.”
Others complain that Ryan no longer holds town-hall-style meetings (his aides say he hosts telephone call-ins where constituents can voice their concerns) and spends more time outside the district than in it.
“He’s just changed so much from the beginning of his career until now,” said Chris Rice, 68, a Democrat who works in health care. “I think he’s lost his values.”
But Ryan retains strong support elsewhere in the district, particularly in rural areas and counties like Waukesha, Walworth and Racine. His Republican backers insist that the speaker will be just fine, especially in
ACROSS
1 Hardly
8 Chemicals proscribed by ’70s
legislation
12 Like some legal damages
20 2018 N.C.A.A. football
champs
21 “I know the answer!”
22 Final song in “Fantasia”
23 Excited sort
25 Chinese-restaurant chain
26 Actress Green of 2006’s
“Casino Royale”
27 Tasteless
28 7 1/2-hour exam, for short
29 Component of a summer
cloud
30 One doing the lord’s work
32 Something you hope people
have when they leave?
34 Bee ____
35 Business bigwigs
39 Caught morays
40 What a spoiler spoils
42 Crush
44 Heroic figure in “Star Wars”
films
49 “I need everyone’s help!”
54 “Geez, that was tiring!”
55 Rumpus
56 Many a cereal-box toy
57 Speckled horse
59 Big name in nail polish
60 Bathtub accessory
61 Rating for “Game of Thrones”
and “House of Cards”
62 Area for filming in Hollywood
65 ____ favor
66 Org. that oversaw F.D.R.’s
Federal Project Number One
67 Haw’s go-with
68 Patriotic song lyric before
“Mind the music and the step”
71 Regulation followers, in brief
72 Shorn animal
73 An ace has a low one
74 Relatives of channels
75 Gallic gal pal
76 Dumbbell curls build them,
for short
77 Aides: Abbr.
80 ____ Rios, Jamaica
81 Cry to a prima donna
82 Had
83 Hero the wake of the passage of the landmark tax overhaul, which he has been promoting during carefully controlled visits to businesses here and around the country.
“Ever since I’ve known Paul, tax reform was near and dear to his heart,” said Kim Travis, who represents Ryan’s district on the executive committee of the Wisconsin Republican Party. “So to get that passed is huge. I don’t think any of his opponents stand a chance.”
The most recent Marquette Law School poll found that, statewide, 46 percent of voters approve of Ryan, while 39 percent disapprove and 15 percent say they have not heard enough about him. And his aides note that the local economy has bounced back. The latest state figures show unemployment in Rock County, which includes Janesville, is at 3.6 percent. It was 13.2 percent in 2009, the year the auto plant closed.
Even so, some political observers are seeing cracks in the speaker’s armor. Stan Milam, a longtime Janesville journalist and former radio host, said that neither Bryce nor Myers has what it takes to beat Ryan this year. But he does see the speaker showing signs of weakness.
“Every politician, if they have a lengthy political career, becomes more vulnerable than usual,” Milam said, “and I believe that’s where Paul Ryan is.” 85 Natural disaster of 2012
88 Magician known for
debunking paranormal claims
91 IV-bag contents
92 Big ____, nickname of
baseball’s David Ortiz
93 Fetch
96 Photo-editing option
98 4-Down personnel,
informally
100 Item in a sink
102 Lasting, unpleasant memory
105 Match (with)
106 Move to solid food
108 Something used in a pinch?
112 Social ____
113 Stretchable wrappers
115 1988 crime comedy rated 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes
117 Spanish 101 question
118 They may be loaded in a
casino
119 Device many use in bed
120 Massé, e.g.
121 On the double
122 Go
DOWN
1 Deceptive moves
2 Partner of well
3 Cockpit devices
4 “Enemies: A History of the
____” (2012 best seller)
5 Delhi dignitary
6 Country whose total land area
is less than .01% forested
7 Retailer with a star in its logo
8 Flaky entree
9 A,B,CorD
10 Brothel
11 ____-crab soup
12 Vatican jurisdiction
13 Eye part
14 Call from behind a counter
15 The “Home Alone” boy, e.g.
16 Things to shoot for … or shoot at
Ryan of “The Beverly Hillbillies”
18 Embassy issuances
19 Big ____ Conference
24 Sermon topic
28 Señora, across the Pyrenees
31 Reddish-purple 17 33 Prefix with liter
34 Have an exclusive
relationship
36 Nutrient in lentils and liver
37 X
38 Pathetic
40 Make easier to plow, in a way
41 Makes a connection
43 Pfizer competitor
45 Dieting units: Abbr.
46 Helen Reddy’s signature hit
47 Malleable
48 Tougher
49 Like a fictional Casey
50 Have as a housemate
51 “I wanna look!”
52 ____ Zero
53 Leafy vegetables
58 Acknowledge without words 62 Irish Spring, e.g.
63 Pueblo ancestors
64 It’s lit
68 “Totally, bro”
69 Four-letter island name with
three syllables
70 Some expensive gowns
75 Associate of Athos and
Porthos
78 ____ Fridays
79 “____ in the Rain”
81 Certain bra spec
84 Big heads
86 ____ ipsa loquitur
87 Hot state
89 Each
90 Goal for a tailor
94 Beethoven’s Third
95 Typewriter formatting aid 97 Consent (to)
98 Ballroom dance in duple time
99 City near Biscayne National
Park
100 Touches, as with a tissue
101 “This is SO frustrating!”
103 Poet who wrote “For the Time
Being” and “Another Time”
104 Figure on a poster
105 Bench presses build them,
for short
106 Well thought?
107 Prefix with -derm
109 Kept in the loop, in a way
110 Prudence
111 Whoops?
114 French possessive
115 Billboards, e.g.
116 France’s ____ du Bourget