As I write reasons you students should vote for me for Congress I think that a new approach is in order. By now you have not only caught on to how political campaigns are conducted, you’re probably pretty sick of it. Frankly, we all are. Many promises are made during campaigns and they are often impossible to deliver.

Some of those promises don’t happen because the candidate doesn’t really intend to do it. Others don’t happen because the way we conduct our legislative bodies these days excludes whole groups of lawmakers from actually getting their ideas on the table. You as voters can’t do much to with the first instance; you just hope whomever you voted for isn’t lying. You can, however, do something now to ensure your viewpoints do get to the legislative table.

If, for example, you send Tammy back to Congress she will mostly sit there because the Democratic Party does not control the U.S. House. Tammy is not even mainstream in her own party, which weakens her effectiveness even more. She flies low under the radar for the most part, and they like that since it keeps her ideas (considered hopelessly irrelevant and even dangerous from a public-relations angle) nicely in the background where they will not draw any fire.

My party, the Republican Party, does control the house. So if I’m there as your representative the leadership will have to include me, especially since I’m a minority and they seem to be bending over backwards to “prove” they are a big tent party and they care about all of us. And guess what? I’m a determined guy. They will have to hear me because I just refuse to shut up about what I believe. That is where you come in. If I’m your Congressman, you will be represented! Even if I disagree with you I’ll get your viewpoint into the discussion, and I’ll insist it be heard. Even if it is actually unwelcome to my own party! That is what I think the job is.

Tammy does not think that way. She’s interested in her personal agenda; that’s why some of the stuff that would be really good for you students never makes the table (at least from her). She voted against low-interest student loans for students from all incomes. She can’t see that people in your age bracket need a new model in Social Security. It’s probably the only way you’ll ever get anything out of it. People twice your age are already wondering if the system can hold together long enough to serve them!

I assure you I have my doubts about both main parties some times, especially given the scarcity of resources mine offered me to run my campaign. I guess they decided I could not win, and they chose to “invest” elsewhere. You know what? That’s fine with me. I’ll enjoy arriving there without any help from them since they will not control me by invisible strings that invariably accompany financial assistance.

Tammy Baldwin has some serious strings on her … about a million dollars worth. And most of it came from out-of-state. From big, powerful interests with defined agendas, set on getting “their” candidate in. Is that what you want? A million bucks from somewhere else that buys you no influence in Congress anyway?

That’s pathetic. It’s not what the system is supposed to be. Representatives are supposed to be widely supported by their districts, not purchased by outsiders. You want reform in campaign financing? That’s me. Don’t cry to me about “Big Money” in politics because I don’t have any of it!

Now back to the idea I’m developing here. You students need effective representation, not a place-holder who is kept in the back room.

Let’s take another issue, one near and dear to your hearts: the environment. I lived as a kid in rural Tennessee. Beautiful. I love the environment, too. And I’ll be happy to entertain your viewpoints and pass them into law if I can. You’ll have to convince me just as anyone else will. I’m a case-by-case basis representative. You can e-mail, phone, fax, snail mail, or even drop into the office and take a shot any time you want. I promise that you’ll be involved as much as you want to be … Just make the effort and so will I.

Much has been made of the whole terrorism and war issues. Here’s how I look at it. Imagine you had a guy living down the hall in the dorm or in the apartment across the hall and you found out he was cooking up a big vat of anthrax. Then you heard about a missile he bought from some shady guy around the corner. Then you found out he absolutely hated the folks who lived on the next block. Lastly, you did the right thing and tried to get the police to get in there and put a stop to all of this and they gave you the run-around while the guy was busy stashing the stuff in all kinds of cubbyholes ’til the heat was off. How would you feel?

That’s how our intelligence community feels, that’s how our military feels. We better do something soon or we’ll wake up and discover this fellow finally connected all the circuits and blasted away Haifa or Jerusalem or maybe Rome.

Ron Greer is running for Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional district seat.