Pick A Progressive Patriot: House Challengers These are the candidates featured in Senator Feingold's second "Pick a Progressive Patriot" event of 2008.  After reading their bios, be sure to go vote for your favorite candidate. Sam Bennett (PA-15) Sam, 50 years old, from Allentown, Pennsylvania, has been tackling her community’s problems for 30 years with a pragmatic, creative spirit. As a civic leader, she has confronted issue after issue with the tenacity, ingenuity, and new ideas that you simply don’t see in career politicians.    High schoolers were graduating from her hometown’s schools without the necessary job skills. Sam started the William Allen Construction Company where students learned valuable trade skills and a work ethic – while still in school – helping them to graduate.  The beautiful old houses of Allentown were falling into disrepair, causing neighborhoods to deteriorate into blight and crime. Sam started a non-profit to reward homeowners who repaired and maintained their homes, bringing up the quality of life in communities. Her non-profit, Properties of Merit, took its progress statewide last year.  The city’s annual spring arts fair, called Mayfair, was running badly in the red and on the verge of going bankrupt. Her business sense honed as an entrepreneur and corporate executive, Sam took the helm and within a year, brought the festival back into solvency – and back to life. These are just a few of Sam’s achievements in her community. During this time, she has worked as a corporate executive, raised her three children, restored the Historic Benner Home in Allentown, and operated a chocolate-chip cookie business that employed developmentally disabled adults. This year, Sam is challenging Republican Charles Dent for the 15th Congressional District. Dent has voted with George Bush 80 percent of the time in Congress – votes that were not only bad for our country’s people and economy, but also wrong. You can visit Sam online at http://www.bennett2008.com/   Larry Joe Doherty (TX-10) Larry Joe Doherty is leading the effort that’s bringing regular Texans together. A leader who takes the time to listen, Larry Joe has also proven he has the courage to take a stand when the rules of fair play are not applied evenly to all. Known nationally for his stance on legal ethics, Larry Joe and his wife Joanne endowed a Chair on Ethics at the University of Houston School of Law. Larry Joe and Joanne DohertyAlthough Larry’s pursuit of justice for his clients is serious business, he may be best known for service on the bench of television’s highly rated courtroom series, TEXAS JUSTICE. In his persona “Judge Larry Joe Doherty,” he drew from his years of experience to make legally binding decisions that went beyond anger and revenge and forced people to accept responsibility for their actions and address the root causes of their conflicts. Outside of the courtroom, Larry Joe takes his message of doing right and accepting responsibility to heart — cultivating his ranch into a preserve that protects animals and the environment. Larry Joe is past president of the Washington County Wildlife Society and a member of the Texas Wildlife Association and a past member of the Texas Quail Council. As a writer and published poet, he draws upon his family life, marriage of 38 years, and Texas heritage for inspiration. You can visit Larry online at http://www.larryjoe.com   Hank Eng (CO-06) Hank Eng began his career in service as a Peace Corps volunteer. He served in Kenya, Africa for three years as a Water Development Engineer and stayed in Africa for eight more years with the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development. A distinguished career in the private sector followed as an Aerospace Engineer and consultant; Hank is among the best and brightest. Having had his choice of stations throughout his career, Hank never chose the easy assignments. Instead, he chose to be where history was being made: Pakistan during President Zia’s assassination, China during the events at Tienanmen Square, and the Soviet Union at its fall. Hank’s experience and service to our country is exemplary. Born in 1948 (New York, New York), the son of Chinese immigrants, Hank’s father, a U.S. Soldier in WWII, taught him that service to one’s family, one’s neighbors, and one’s country is at the heart of the American Dream. As a pilot in the Colorado Civil Air Patrol, Captain Hank Eng flies search and rescue missions, he serves the youth of our state in the Young Eagles program (a program that takes aspiring young pilots on their first flights), he serves on the board of directors for South Metro Fire Rescue District and, if elected as U.S. Congressman to Colorado’s 6th District, Hank will serve all the people of this district, so that we all may live our American Dream. You can visit Hank online at http://www.hankeng.com/   Judy Feder VA-10 Judy Feder's three decades of health policy experience will make her an invaluable leader in transforming how Washington does business. She began her career researching ways to make health care more affordable. A widely published scholar, Judy worked at the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute before joining the faculty of Georgetown University in 1984. In 1988 she served as Staff Director of the Congressional Pepper Commission, the bipartisan commission on comprehensive health care. In 1993, she was appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services, where she worked to expand health insurance coverage, manage Medicare and Medicaid effectively, and assure the safety of food and drugs. Judy is a professor and, from 1999 through 2007, was Dean of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. Her combination of scholarship and government experience have made the institute one of the nation's most respected training grounds for public policy leaders. Her graduates are tackling the nation's most complicated policy challenges- from health reform in the Congress to military intelligence in the Pentagon. One of the nation's leading experts on health policy, Judy is respected for her work as a scholar, public servant, educator, and independent advocate for America's families. You can visit Judy online at http://judyfeder.com/   Becky Greenwald (IA-04) Becky Greenwald has been actively working for agriculture the past 22 years with two respected Iowa-grown seed companies. She joined the Garst Seed Company in 1986 and has been with Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business for the past twelve years, working in various sales and marketing roles in North America and internationally. Before Becky’s work in agriculture, her first job, after graduating from Iowa State, took Becky to San Antonio, Texas where she was a medical case worker for the American National Red Cross at Wilford Hall Medical Center, the largest medical facility in the United States Air Force, located at Lackland Air Force Base.  Prior to returning to her native Iowa in 1986, she was the Contra Costa County Division Director for the San Francisco Bay Area March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. Greenwald is an active Iowa Democratic leader. She recently served as the chair of the Dallas County Democrats after serving as treasurer. In 2006, Greenwald was elected to the represent the 4th District on the Iowa Democratic Party State Central Committee and served as the 4th District Central Committee Secretary.  When the 2005 National Governor’s Association met in Des Moines Greenwald recruited and organized the volunteers for  the Capitol Gala event.                        Becky was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, grew up in State Center and graduated from West Marshall High School. She went on to receive her B.S. from Iowa State University, completed summer studies at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Monterrey, Mexico and earned her Master’s of Business Administration degree from Drake University. Becky’s opponent, Tom Latham, has voted with the Republican Party 92% of the time despite his claims that partisanship in Washington is to blame. He has been a blind supporter of President Bush’s policies, and it’s time to send an independent thinker like Becky Greenwald to Congress.  Becky will make history as the first woman ever elected to congress from Iowa!  You can visit Becky online at http://www.beckygreenwald.com/   Rob Hubler (IA-05 Rob was born in 1943 near Minneapolis, Kan., a rural community where his family lived until 1950 when his father, Rev. Kenneth Hubler, was named minister of the Grace Presbyterian Church in Council Bluffs. Rob played in the band and was involved in the ROTC program at Abraham Lincoln High School, where he graduated in 1961. Rob worked the next year as a car counter for Union Pacific Railroad and became a member of the Railroad Workers Union. In 1962, Rob enlisted in the U. S. Navy, where he received training and graduated from the Nuclear Power School and New London Submarine School. Rob served his country for the next seven years, first on nuclear-powered submarines then becoming a Nuclear Plant Operator. He received the Good Conduct Medal and the Vietnam-Era Medal before receiving an honorable discharge in 1969. Alongside Rob's lifelong interest in politics and serving others, another driving force has been his faith. He gives credit to his father and his two uncles, all Presbyterian ministers, as well as his mother, who he describes as being a pastor in her own right. Their teachings and combined influences led Rob to enroll at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in 1989.  After graduating from the seminary, Rob pastored Presbyterian Churches at State Center, Albion, Maxwell, Quasqueton and Council Bluffs in Iowa as well as congregations in Nebraska, Kansas and southern California. He eventually retired from being a full-time minister in 2000 to care for his father in Pasadena, Calif., until his death the following year. Upon moving back to Iowa in 2006, Rob began to receive encouragement from many friends and former colleagues to use his extensive experience by running for Congress in the Fifth District. After weeks of consideration, Rob decided to offer his candidacy to the people of western Iowa. He believes the people in the Fifth District deserve a Representative who is informed, educated, thoughtful and who will be a positive voice toward creating a more perfect union. You can visit Rob online at http://www.hublercongress.com/   Heather Ryan (KY-01) Heather Ryan is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, and longtime non-profit executive. Upon graduation from Drake University, Ryan moved to Washington, D.C., joining the struggle for Women's Rights as a non-profit fund raiser for five years.  In 2005 Ryan accepted a position as a campaign manager for the Eric Streit for US Congress campaign and subsequently moved to Paducah, Kentucky. While Executive Director of a small non-profit movie theater Heather Ryan had an encounter with Senator Mitch McConnell where she attempted to ask him a question about the War in Iraq. Senator McConnell ignored the question and slipped into his waiting SUV without incident. The following day Ryan was warned that the Senior Republican Senator had instructed his staff to call community professionals and non-profit organizations and threaten funding for Paducah River Front projects. Within a week, Ryan had lost her job.  Friends and family encouraged Ryan to run in the uncontested race against Ed Whitfield; the very race in where she was the campaign manager for Eric Streit during the Primary Election two years previously. You can visit Heather online at http://www.ryanforkentucky.com   Dennis Shulman (NJ-05) Dennis has spent his entire life confronting challenges – and surmounting them. Defeating an arch-right winger who has a lifetime rating of 100% from the American Conservative Union would hardly be Dennis’ greatest accomplishment. Growing up working class and losing his sight at a young age, some predicted that Dennis would never graduate high school. During high school, Dennis worked in a toy factory to help his family pay the bills. However, neither he nor his parents accepted that anything would keep him from achieving the American Dream. Indeed, Dennis graduated from Brandeis Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, earning a Special White House Commendation for his volunteer work on behalf of the developmentally disabled.  Dennis next completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice from Harvard University, and then began what has become an extended series of teaching positions, professional publications, postdoctoral studies and speaking engagements. Long an educator, including more than a decade at Fordham, Dennis was ordained as a Rabbi in 2003, the same year he published his book, The Genius of Genesis. In addition to treating patients in his psychological practice, Dennis currently leads Saturday morning services at a synagogue. He has been married to his wife, Pam, an obstetrician, for 33 years. They are proud parents of two adult daughters. Dennis’ opponent, Scott Garrett, has cast lonely votes against SCHIP, Head Start, the GI Bill, and even reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act!  NJ-5, and the nation, can do better. You can visit Dennis online at http://shulmanforcongress.com/   Annette Taddeo (FL-18) Annette is running for Congress because she believes South Florida needs a new beginning.  Her work as a community leader and a successful small business owner has provided her with the experience to get results in the halls of Congress.  She will work to address the issues facing the 18th District and bring a new voice and independent leadership to Washington.   As founder and CEO of LanguageSpeak, Taddeo has a 15 year track record as a successful businesswoman and was named Businesswoman of the Year by the South Florida Business Journal and one of the top 50 Latina entrepreneurs in the country by Hispanic Magazine. Taddeo has also served as the chair of the Women’s Enterprise National Council’s Leadership Forum and is a National Founding Partner and member of the Executive Board of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).   Taddeo’s priorities reflect the values of the 18th district.  She has already raised more than every recent Democratic challenger in this seat combined and the district is seeing historic increases in Democratic voter registration.  Annette Taddeo’s leadership, experience, and dedication to her community will make her a valuable voice for the working families she will represent in Congress.  Annette is married to Dr. Eric Goldstein, a Clinical Psychologist & Motivational Speaker. She has twin 17-year old step-daughters and a 2-year old daughter. Annette and her husband belong to Beth David Congregation and live in Pinecrest. You can visit Annette online at http://www.votetaddeo.com/   Be sure you vote today for your favorite Progressive Patriot!