I first heard of Asher Heimermann when he was running for mayor of Sheboygan, WI, after the current mayor, Bob Ryan, faced problems related to his drinking.
At the time he announced his run, Asher was 18.
I'm posting this picture because when I sent Asher a small donation and received his reply it filled me with hope.
Why? Because it's great to see someone so young with so much political savvy. He's been described as one of the hardest working Democrats in Wisconsin and his reply to me was extremely well crafted:
I'm running for State Assembly because I think the citizens of the 26th District would benefit from having a representative whose priorities are day-in and day-out: jobs, the economy, and standing up for working and middle-class families.
There's little of the typical politician in his response. He states succinctly what he believes in, whether you like it or not. And he does it in a single sentence.
Hell, every Democrat out there should memorize this sentence and repeat it every change they get.
Day-in and day-out priorities: Jobs, the economy and standing up for working and middle-class families.
Why is this so hard to say?
We need more Ashers so if you have a minute, help him out or send him a word of encouragement in his latest run for Wisconsin State Assembly.
DISCLAIMER: For the record, I am in no way, shape, or form associated with his campaign. I just like his moxy and his ability to state what he stands for simply and without shame. The brief story of how I know Asher is below the fold.
I'm not quite sure how Asher found me, but I think it's because I have a friend who works at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay who I'd been communicating a lot with on Facebook during the Scott Walker protests.
One day, Asher friended me and I assumed it was because he saw me and my liberal comments on my friend's Facebook page.
I know some people find posting politics on Facebook to be in poor taste, but I'm always thankful because as liberals, our stories often aren't posted in the mainstream media so word of mouth is often the only way we have of getting stories out.
We exchanged a few words when Asher first "friended" me (I'm also not afraid to friend people who share similar beliefs) and then I didn't hear from him again for several months.
The next time I heard from him he was running for Mayor of Sheboygan and asking if I would donate to his campaign.
At first this annoyed me, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought: "Wow, that's pretty gutsy. Asking strangers to donate to your political campaign."
I looked him up online and turns out, he's been politically active since he was 14 and started campaigning for President Obama.
At the time he asked, I didn't donate, but later when I saw he was running for the Wisconsin Assembly, I decided that I wanted to support one of our rising stars.
Here's a clip that one of the local TV stations ran in 2008: