2/26 Speaking at event with Jack Wagner in Gettysburg and then with Dan Onorato in Carlisle.

2/16 Petition signing to get on the ballot has started, add your signature before 3/9.

2/14 190,000 Miles

2/13 Great Cumberland County Democratic Committee meeting

2/5 Braved the winter snow to attend the Democratic State Committee annual meeting

1/30 Met Governor and Senate candidates at Pennsylvania Progressive Summit

1/27 State of the Union Comments

My name is Ryan Sanders, I am a small business owner whose family has lived in Central Pennsylvania for over 10 generations. I am running for the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 19th District. I am campaigning to hear and address the regular person’s needs in these hard economic times. We need to fight for working families and small business. Focus on freedom, responsibility and smarter government.

In Central Pennsylvania, we are a practical people. We are a hard working people. We are a very independent people. Many of us are libertarian, anti-Washington, old-fashioned get-out-of-my-way-and-I’ll-make-it-on-my-own American self-sufficients. This can make us seem conservative to outsiders because we often expect people to take care of themselves and we don't want to interfere with anyone’s private life. But it is not conservative to respect someone's privacy. It is not conservative to expect someone to take responsibility for their own actions! It is American! And we, as Americans in Central Pennsylvania, understand this and we live it every day and that is how I will win: By reminding the voters in our district that practical people are progressive people.

The enthusiasm for progressive principles is inspiring and the Republican Party has begun pushing out moderates. This is an opportunity for Democrats to welcome new voters and to make the Democratic Party a competitive force again in Central PA. It is showing up in the voter rolls, each of the counties are closing the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats have always worked hard to level the playing field and create opportunity for any person looking to better themselves. We want a fair shot for people who work hard. A fair shot comes from many places; our families, our churches, sometimes even our government but in the difficult economic situation our country is in right now a fair shot is a good job with a living wage. Strong small businesses employ millions of people and create most of our country's real wealth. Did you know that one quarter of national employment is filled by businesses with 20 or fewer employees? Without small business our economy grinds to a halt!

We have to be sensitive to the relationship and the responsibility that a business has to the greater needs of the community. Because quite often the needs of a small business are the same as the needs of the rest of the community…good education, solid infrastructure, quality affordable health care, and a secure community. These are OUR progressive ideals as Democrats. This is why we are turning heads and this is getting new voters as Democrats!

My campaign is about more than just a campaign for Congress and it is certainly about more than just me. This campaign is about helping those who help themselves and restoring growth to Cumberland, Adams and York County. I intend to run a campaign that speaks to those values and furthers OUR message to all the voters of the 19th Congressional District.

Practical Problems, Practical Goals

My Campaign’s primary focus is jobs and helping small businesses grow. That is how we get out of this financial mess that Wall Street created for us. The U.S. has prospered for so many years because it has enjoyed a set of unique competitive strengths. These strengths must be constantly tended to and we have unfortunately allowed ourselves to be distracted from them by the demonizing partisanship of recent years.

We need a strategy supported by the majority to secure America's economic future. Yet we continually hear the same divisive arguments. Republicans repeat their simplistic “free-market” thinking, even though the absence of all regulation makes no sense. They moralize about self-reliance as if no there is no need for a safety net that helps workers transition to new jobs. Some even argue that the US should have no big picture strategy, economic or otherwise because that would be "socialist." Yet the real issue is not picking winners and losers but improving the business environment for all American companies, something we cannot do without identifying our top priorities. Business (and citizens in general) cannot thrive without healthy social conditions.

Democrats, meanwhile, keep talking as if they want to penalize investment and economic success. They cling to cumbersome, complicated laws, and resist ways to get litigation costs for business in line with other countries. Too many Democrats vacillate on trade, which has played an essential part in creating America’s wealth! We are in a global economy. We must make sure that our workers are protected and our businesses can pursue opportunities where the US has comparative advantage. Social progress cannot be achieved without the support of small business.

To keep America competitive and recover strongly, we have to get beyond this divisive thinking. Political leaders, business leaders, and civil society must have a respectful dialogue about our challenges. Our interests align. We all want the same things: strong schools, healthy families, good infrastructure, etc. We all benefit when citizens are happy, healthy and financially sound. We all benefit when businesses have strong profits. We all benefit when workers are productive and well paid.

We need to focus on competitive reality, not defending past policies that don’t apply to our future. Backward thinking policies by both parties are largely canceling each other out. In some ways that’s positive. But what we really need is a thoughtful strategy that directs spending to priority investments and puts money into the economy where we need it, such as educational assistance and logistical infrastructure, rather than creating complicated tax rebates and credits or blinds cuts or increases.

The United State’s Advantages & Challenges

The U.S. has the best environment for entrepreneurship and new business creation. Entrepreneurship has been fed by a scientifically advanced innovation machine that is the best in the world. Our universities equip students with highly advanced skills and act as magnets for global talent, while playing a critical role in innovation and spinning off new businesses.

America has always been the country with the strongest commitment to competition and free markets. This belief has driven the great level of restructuring, renewal, and productivity growth in the U.S. Each region of the country has its own industry clusters, with specialized skills and assets. Each state takes responsibility for competitiveness and addresses its own problems rather than waiting for the central government. The U.S. has benefited historically from the deepest and most efficient capital markets of any nation, especially for risk capital. Only in America can people raise millions, lose it all, and return to start another company. Our willingness to restructure, take our losses, and move on will allow the U.S. to weather the current crisis better than most countries.

But policy failures have offset and even nullified these strengths just as other nations are becoming more competitive. The problem is not so much that other nations are threatening the U.S. but that the U.S. lacks a coherent strategy for addressing its own problems. This is what I will focus on:

First, we have inadequate investment in science and technology. A lack of it is hurting America's feeder system for entrepreneurship. Research and development as a share of GDP has declined, while it has risen in many other countries. Federal policymakers have failed to act and we need to make sure we stay ahead of the curve on technology. This is one of our country’s key competitive tools that keeps us head and shoulders above anyone else.

Secondly, America's belief in competition is waning. There has been a significant relaxation of antitrust enforcement that has allowed mergers to dominate markets. Ironically, these mergers are often justified by "free market" rhetoric. Because of this the U.S. ranks only 20th among countries in openness to capital flows, 21st on low trade barriers, and 35th on absence of distortions from taxes and subsidies, according to the 2008 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum.

We are quickly becoming the kind of distorted economy we have often criticized in the developing world! Lack of regulatory oversight and capital requirements, in the name of liberalization and well-meaning efforts to extend credit to lower-income citizens, has undermined the stability of the financial markets and was a major factor in the current downturn. America under-regulates in some areas while it over-regulates in others. We need to rationalize our policies for practical results not ideological ones.

Thirdly, our colleges and universities are precious assets, but we have no serious plan to improve access to them for anyone wanting to attend. We are also not fulfilling our mission to prepare all our children adequately to attend them if they choose. We need more to have access to higher education. Our economy must have the skills to justify the high wages we want. Those skills only come from higher education, and we are fortunate to have the best universities in the world! We should be looking into mounting a serious program to provide access to higher education, like the G.I. Bill and National Science Foundation programs of earlier years. No Child Left Behind must be revisited to improve outcomes and encourage innovative education.

Fourth, the federal government has not supported or protected the decentralization and regional specialization that drives our economy. Congress and bureaucrats waste billions of dollars on top-down mandates, whether for federal economic development programs, environmental policy or poverty reduction. These programs too often do not send money where it will have the greatest impact in each region. For example, distressed urban communities (like York city), where poverty in America is concentrated, are starved of the infrastructure spending needed for job development. Or federal agricultural programs which mostly support large Agribusiness over small family farms who are the mainstay of Central Pennsylvania’s rural communities.

It is no wonder Americans are becoming more populist, more protectionist, and more tolerant of meddling in the free market. The job training system is ineffective and receives less funding each year. Pension security is eroding, Social Security and Medicare are ticking time bombs. Ensuring affordable health insurance is a major worry for all Americans, even those who have it. Health-care costs are too high, but there is no serious effort to provide more integrated and efficient care. And our politicians spend time distracting us by ranting about “Death Panels,” abortion, drug control or other important, but peripheral issues that could be addressed through better government and open debate.

Federal policies have hobbled America's uniqueness by driving up the cost and complexity of doing business and reducing job growth, particularly for smaller companies. Burdensome mandates regulating employment, the environment, and product liability need to give way to better approaches involving less cost and litigation. But special interests block almost all reforms to protect their fiefdoms.

Collectively, these costs of doing business, coupled with skill gaps, are becoming significant enough to drive investments out of the country, including investments by American companies. It is up to our Representatives to take responsibility for changing the dialogue and addressing these concerns. This is why I am running for Congress. This is why I intend to fight for working families and small business. This is why I will focus on freedom, responsibility and smarter government to hear and address the regular person’s needs in these hard economic times.

I need your help to make this happen. You know that the only way to win is to get active and to donate. I need your time and your resources to get the message out. Please support me and support our progressive principles in 2010.