Interview with Heather Ryan in KY-1: 'I am not afraid of them'

Heather Ryan (D-Paducah): Politicker photo Heather Ryan (D-Paducah): Politicker photo

Heather Ryan made news in January of this year when she was fired from her job as Executive Director of the Paducah Film Society, after she and her daughter confronted incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) about the war in Iraq following an appearance by the Senator in Paducah.

Ryan filmed her encounter with McConnell, during which Ryan asks to speak with the four-term incumbent about the war while her daughter shouts at the Senator, who quickly ducked into a waiting vehicle.

Following the incident, Ryan says allies of McConnell pressured her employers to have her fired. McConnell's office claims they had "no involvement" in Ryan's termination.

Shortly after her firing, Ryan jumped into the race for Kentucky's 1st Congressional District seat and, without primary opposition, she is set to face seven-term incumbent Ed Whitfield (R-Hopkinsville) in November's general election.

In an interview with PolitickerKY.com she appears to have lost none of the aggressiveness that propelled her into the public eye, recounting her version of the events surrounding her firing, discussing the challenges of a campaign that "could not be more grassroots," and laying down a barrage of charges against Whitfield and his fellow Republicans.

[Note: this interview was conducted in advance of last Tuesday's Democratic primary, before a KDP fundraiser in Louisville.]

How did you get into this race?

The reason I got into the race is actually a pretty interesting one.

I am actually a political scientist by trade. I have run campaigns. I have worked for campaigns since I was ten years old. I moved to Kentucky specifically to run a campaign for Eric Streit, for the 1st Congressional District. He was running in the primary against two other candidates. He, unfortunately, didn't make it past the primary, but it was a very energetic campaign. [Ed: Streit lost in 2006 to former KY-1 incumbent, Tom Barlow.]

So I moved to Paducah for that reason, but I stayed to build a life. I found a job and I got married and had a baby.

It's not easy to find a job in Paducah in the first place - the job that I did find was as Executive Director of a non-profit. It didn't pay well, but it was just good to find a job in Paducah. It's very difficult.

After I got the job, I had an encounter with Senator McConnell where I asked him about the war in Iraq. Honestly, I've been involved in politics all my life, so I didn't think it was a big deal. My daughter and I laughed it off after it was done because he just blew us off and got in his car and went away.

By the next day there were all these emergency meetings all about the city of Paducah. [McConnell's] Chief of Staff had called all of these power people and told them this elaborate story about how I had banged on his car and was yelling obscenities and was threatening the Senator.

My daughter yelled at him "Do you want my Dad to die?" because her dad is active duty. I was filming it. We laughed it off.

I lost my job because he had threatened the city of Paducah to cut off their federal funding to revitalization programs if they continued to have me employed at that building.

It was probably about a week and a half for the filing deadline for the United State House of Representatives. At the time, no one was running against Representative Ed Whitfield, and it didn't look like there was going to be anybody.

Some of my friends said "you're not afraid to stand up to Senator McConnell, and so you should stand up to Ed Whitfield, because we need someone who is not afraid and the deadline is approaching quickly."

So I talked it over with my husband and we weighed our options.

And, all of a sudden, I'm no longer employable in the city of Paducah because all of these people think I am some crazy lunatic that is threatening the Senator. I wouldn't be able to get a job in the city of Paducah, but I would sure love to be a Representative for the 1st Congressional District and bring real representation from someone who actually knows what is happening, rather than someone who doesn't even live in the district that's been out of touch for years.

So, we decided to enter the race.

Had you thought about running for office in the past?

I had thought about it, but I had always been a behind the scenes kind of person.

I've always been a strategist. I usually step back and I look at a race and say "what are they doing right and what are they doing wrong? What would I do differently?"

I've never run for office before, but that doesn't mean I don't know the inner workings of the office and it doesn't mean that I don't know how politics works, because this is what I do for my life - this is my passion.

Some people were meant to be singers, I was meant to be in politics.

What sort of political work have you done in the past?

I worked for a non-profit organization for five years as a political fundraiser in Washington, D.C., called NARAL [Ed. - National Abortion Rights Action League].

I was an intern for the Iowa State Senate. I was a political science major. I was in the Navy. I have worked on so many campaigns throughout the years.

I've worked on mayorals in Des Moines, and a congressional race in San Diego, when I was active duty. I've done everything from stuffing envelopes for Governor's races, to making calls to door knocking, to this strategy of fundraising.

Fundraising is your hardest challenge because without money it's really hard to get your message out. So, I've done all kinds of stuff, but it's always been behind the scenes.

Can you talk about your campaign, and how it is working, and how it could work better?

My campaign could not be more grassroots. We've just - just about - reached the point where you have to file with the FEC. We've almost raised $5,000. But that's nothing, comparatively, to what the Republicans have. My opponent has over $1,000,000 already.

So I imagine, strategy-wise, what he is going to do is he is going to saturate the market and say, you know, he cured cancer, he ended world hunger, he brought peace to the Middle East.

None of that is true, but we won't have the money to go back and saturate the market in response and say "he didn't end world hunger."

So our strategy more is to actually get in touch with the voters, and travelling the district is what we have been doing so far.

And keeping an active website, where we try and update it constantly with new information about where we have been, where were going, please email us, please join our Myspace, or our Facebook.

Unless we get real funding, I just don't see us being able to saturate the market like he does. I would love to think that we are going to, but I'm not holding my breath.

So our strategy at this point is to actually travel the district, get out to the voters.

It's a Democratic year. There is no reason in this district - where we have 63 percent Democrats - there is no reason that there is a Republican - a completely out of touch republican who is in the back pocket of the oil industry and the pharmaceuticals - no reason that he is our representative. You know, this should be our year.

Is there a way you are going to be able to communicate that message if the fundraising isn't there?

We've been very, very fortunate. We have actually received a lot more support than I expected us to. People are very fired up and jazzed to volunteer and make calls and to do the grassroots canvassing that they normally don't see in this district.

We've been very fortunate to have people just come up and say "We're willing to help get the word out."

People that can help aren't generally the people who can give you a lot of money, but that's okay, because they are still helping in a different way. Everybody has their niche and what they enjoy doing and what they are good at doing.

We're at every big event. When we go to the event we just tell people to tell 3 people, tell 10 people, and we'll give them the call sheets. The KDP [Kentucky Democratic Party] has let us use the voter files so that we can get call sheets out to the volunteers.

Since we probably wouldn't have a lot of money, well have a lot of volunteer effort.

Can you talk a little bit more about the KDP and the role they are playing with the race? Have they offered you other support?

It's a little slow. I think honestly, as a political strategist and analyst, I can see where they are coming from on one point, and that's that they don't see it as winnable right now. Same with the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee].

You've got someone who has been in office for 13 years and has them for over $1 million and you know he has stomped, absolutely stomped the competition before.

And it's because he is a very political, personal politics, backstabbing kind of guy.

He plays the ugly cards as much as he can. He called some of the best candidates the worst things you could possibly call them.

And until someone actually takes a poll and sees is this winnable, then I don't see a lot of big support from the national and state parties.

I appreciate everything we get. The fact they let us use the voter files is great. Anytime they invite use to an event like today, I am very grateful for that.

Hopefully, when they see that it's a democratic year and we need to put every effort into increasing our majorities in the House and Senate, I hope then they'll see that they really need to invest money into commercials and mailers and the whole nine.

How can you distinguish yourself from other campaigns that have been run in the 1st district before?

Well, first of all, I'm the first female to ever run.

I'm probably the youngest person to ever run. I just turned 36

Also, I'm not afraid to call a spade a spade. You know what, [Whitfield] doesn't live here, he doesn't understand what working class people go through, he doesn't know what it's like to not have health insurance.

I don't have health insurance. We go to the Veteran's Hospital anytime we get sick, because we get it. We don't have health insurance. He doesn't get that.

I'm not afraid to say he doesn't get that.

Other candidates have traditionally been afraid to say anything about that, because he is very powerful, He is a very good friend of Senator McConnell, and we have seen what Senator McConnell can do.

My whole point is: I am not afraid of them.

I hope that makes a difference in the race. I hope that people see it.

Do you think the story you are coming with can connect with progressive networks and online fundraising circles?

So far it has. The vast majority of the money we have raised has been online.

It's connected with the progressive and online networks in that they get the story. They just get it. For some reason they understand that I am not just some lunatic out there hollering and being crazy.

One of the people in my law school said I don't make the trouble, I just bring it to light. I'm not a troublemaker, the trouble is already there. I am just the one that is saying "hey, look at the trouble."

People online have been very supportive. That is one of the huge reason we got into the race. Because if it wasn't for them, I was starting to wonder "am I really crazy? Am I really a nut?"

Some of these people in Paducah think I am just outrageous. That's not really the case.

What sort of relationship do you think your campaign will have with Senator McConnell's re-election bid and the presidential race in the state?

Senator McConnell is running a statewide campaign. And last time I saw, his numbers have dropped 20 points in western Kentucky.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that's because we have been going all around western Kentucky telling people he's.... really not a nice guy. I would say ‘a schmuck,' but I'm not off the record.

I'm not necessarily saying that, but it certainly hasn't helped his campaign. People connect with that. People say," you know what, he really is a schmuck and this is what he did to me." And you wouldn't believe some of the stories you hear from people and how they understand that he is really not a nice guy. It's all about power for him.

I hope that he loses and I hope that it's a clean Democratic win and he loses and loses big, and whomever the candidate is, I hope that they just stomp him into the ground.

Now, I don't remember what my other point was because I just got too riled up with that one.

Presidential race?

It's hard to tell with the presidential race and how it's going to effect the down ticket. I'm hoping that people just vote a straight ticket Democrat, but it's a tough area.

So, as a strategist I stand back and I look and say how is this going to affect the other tickets?

I just want people to vote straight ticket Democrat, because that is what we are. Democrats need to vote Democrat.

I hope that people see how desperately we need change.

A lot of people say maybe the Democratic Party has moved away from the values of people who traditionally registered as Democrats. Why would you say the 1st Congressional District elects a Republican?

Traditionally we haven't. We only started electing Republican Congress members with Whitfield. Before that we always, always elected Democratic Congress members, since Reconstruction.

It was Whitfield who came in with the quote-unquote "contract with America." He came in with a ton of money. He saw a vulnerable candidate, which was [former 1st District incumbent] Tom Barlow. Tom had made a vote that was a little bit controversial, and he just played on that, and pounded it and pounded it and saturated the market. Which is what he'll do in this race, and every race before.

He was a Democrat - remember Whitfield was a Democrat, so he is espousing some Democratic principles at least on the front. But his voting record, of course, doesn't say ‘I espouse Democratic principles.'

So he is saturating the market and telling people ‘look at all these great things I do for you.' And, traditionally, people believe what they see on TV.

The Democrats have unfortunately not sunk enough money into this district to say "look, this is not what America needs, this is destroying America." Hopefully, they'll see that this time around now that we are seeing it every single day.

Are there any other issues you want to talk about?

There are so many other issues - the war in Iraq. Obviously, It's an illegal war. We invaded a sovereign country for oil.

And it worked? I don't think so. It didn't work.

I was in the navy, I am a veteran, and I think that is one of the biggest issues.

We are paying so much money to fight a war that's not winnable. At the same time, our streets are crumbling. Our bridges are literally falling down. The kids can't afford to go to field trip because the price of gas is so high, and even if they could afford the price of gas, does the school have enough money?

Theres so many problems. The hot button issues are what are probably going to be getting people to the polls, but there are so many issues that are really pressing on us right now - the economy, education, veterans issues. You have all these disabled veterans coming back from the war and they are just getting screwed with their veteran's packages.

Are you worried you could be perceived as too progressive for the district?

I do think that they will probably try and say that. But you know what, I would rather be thought of as a bleeding heart than heartless. And that is what we have right now - we have someone in office who is absolutely heartless, that doesn't care. You have a district where the median income is less than $30,000 for a family of four. There is something wrong with that. And your current representation doesn't do anything about it.

I'm hoping people in this district see how desperately we need someone that cares, and that's me.

So, if that is considered a bleeding heart or a progressive or whatever, I'm okay with that. Personally, I'm hoping that he ignores me. I'm hoping he doesn't say anything about me because his attack ads and the politics of the past are disgraceful.

As somebody who has had experience running political campaigns, what advice would you give yourself about this race?

I think the only bit of advice I would give myself is to keep it all in context, to not let them get to me as much as I would probably normally let them get to me. I'm impassioned and I've been impassioned about politics since I was a child. They'll probably use that to say "she's too impassioned, she's too progressive" or whatever.

For me to be able to just keep my calm, and stay cool, and understand that they are just playing a game and it's all money and politics and power to them.

For me, it's about people and passion and actually caring about people, it's not the power of politics.

I guess that's mine - just keep a cool head, don't let the passion overwhelm you.

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