The new congressman from Wisconsin’s 7th District is Republican Sean Duffy, who won the seat of Democratic stalwart David Obey in one of 2010’s most bitterly disappointing races for the Democratic Party. Obey had represented the district for 40 years, rising to chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Read More

The new congressman from Wisconsin’s 7th District is Republican Sean Duffy, who won the seat of Democratic stalwart David Obey in one of 2010’s most bitterly disappointing races for the Democratic Party. Obey had represented the district for 40 years, rising to chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Duffy hails from the sparsely populated, thickly forested northern end of the state, the 10th of 11 children who enjoyed what he calls a “quintessential small-town childhood” in Hayward, Wis. He became adept at the local craft of lumberjacking, eventually earning multiple world-champion titles in the 60-foot and 90-foot pole speed climb. In college, he studied business marketing, earning a degree in 1994. On a lark after graduation, Duffy joined the cast of MTV’s The Real World: Boston, one of the earliest reality-TV series. The program brought young people with diverse backgrounds together to live as roommates, with the aim of spurring lively confrontations. Duffy was cast as the conservative in the show, and he frequently sparred with a liberal roommate. Around that time, he met his future wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, who had been cast as the conservative foil in the Real World season taped in San Francisco.

Eventually, Duffy enrolled in law school in Minnesota. With degree in hand, he moved back to Wisconsin to work for his family’s law firm for a short time before becoming a prosecutor. In 2002, Republican Gov. Scott McCallum appointed Duffy as Ashland County district attorney. In that role, he boasted a 90% success rate in jury trials and prosecuting child sex offenders. Duffy was serving his fourth term when he resigned to challenge Obey.

Then, in May, Obey unexpectedly announced that he would not seek re-election, removing himself as a ready target for Duffy, a 38-year-old with a conservative, anti-government message. Instead of facing the 72-year-old Obey, an old-time appropriator who had been in Washington for four decades, Duffy drew as an opponent a Washington outsider like himself, Democratic state Sen. Julie Lassa, 39. In his campaign, Duffy made an issue of the government’s big-spending ways and, specifically, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that Obey, as Appropriations chairman, had helped push to passage. Duffy was adept at raising money and he was endorsed by tea party favorite Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska.

Duffy banked on a national mood favoring Republicans to carry him to victory in a district that has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1988. He ran as an unabashedly family-values and small-government conservative. Rachel Campos-Duffy wrote a book in 2009 titled Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to Loving At-Home Motherhood, which she calls “a love letter to at-home moms.” The couple has six young children.

Lassa accused Duffy of supporting deep cuts in entitlement spending after he embraced Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan. She campaigned as a champion of the middle class, calling for a first-time home buyers’ tax credit, a payroll tax holiday for businesses that hire new workers, and a 10% pay cut for members of Congress until the unemployment rate dropped. But Lassa, despite strong backing from national Democrats, had difficulty connecting with voters, giving stump speeches that were heavily reliant on notes.

By contrast, Duffy was at ease and even charming in a crowd, speaking extemporaneously about issues and defining his opponent better than she could define herself. At one debate, when Lassa accused him of supporting policies that sent American jobs overseas, he replied, “They’re packin’ up and goin’ elsewhere because they can’t do business in Wisconsin! … And Senator Lassa has a leading role in developing those policies that make Wisconsin one of the worst places in the country to do business.” Duffy even overcame an unflattering video clip that was circulated of him dancing on a pool table in his underwear at a “toga” party. On election day, Duffy won, 52% to 44%.