Profile: Meet Mike Waltner

As national spotlights focus on a contentious presidential primary, there is a grassroots groundswell springing from Pennsylvania's heartland.

The voice of Mike Waltner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the 3^rd Congressional district, cuts through the static of my late-edition flip-top Sanyo cell phone. He is on speaker-phone; energized, sharp, and in love with his home town – Erie, PA. Mike has been waging a grassroots campaign seeking the democratic nomination to challenge powerful incumbent Rep. Phil English (R-PA) in the November 2008 election. English won in a cakewalk in 2006 because he went virtually unchallenged. Waltner wants change and believes he's the best Democratic candidate to bring it.

Mike understands the economic and social challenges presented by complex family structures in today's world. Raised by his mother, Maryann, and grandmother, Marie; Mike's father wasn't in the picture. Mike graduated from McDowell High School (1993) where he never really felt like he fit in. His high school was mostly affluent, mostly white, full of mostly two-parent households. He always felt like he was different.

While in Erie, Mike got involved with a small Wesleyan church in his neighborhood where he got involved with a small fundamentalist community. That sparked his faith journey. Throughout college and graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, though, Mike "gradually began to think a little more openly about faith and the way faith related to politics." He had to work his way through school and didn't reap the benefits of privilege held my most of his classmates in college. He explains, "There never seemed to be a sense of acknowledging that in the Christian community I was a part of."

"In college, I had a class called sociology of inequality where I learned about poverty in the third world. I remember a picture that was shown to us of a child breathing fumes from a gasoline soaked rag, to curb his appetite because he didn't have food." He began to think, "Wow. That's real poverty and that's something I have never really experienced."

This picture triggered a learning journey where Mike invested the next years of his life learning about poverty, its causes and its solutions. He also learned about the intersection of poverty and the calls for economic justice in the Bible. Eventually, Mike graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 2003 with a Master of Divinity degree.

Mike's plan to enter full-time ministry was interrupted by the national trauma of September 11, 2001. Mike volunteered his time at Ground Zero where he heard a definitive call to public service.

The Republican incumbent in Mike's district is a study in contrasts. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means committee. "His coffers," says Mike, "are largely funded by the health insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies. He's the son of a prominent lawyer, here in Erie. He went to boarding school, went to University of Pennsylvania, came back here and worked for a couple of years, then ran for congress. I don't think anyone would argue that he had a lot of advantages that most people don't have."

Mike says the biggest difference between him and his incumbent is "I don't believe the market should determine the value of our society. I believe the government has a responsibility to intervene on behalf of its people – to make their lives a little bit easier, a little bit better."

The people of Mike's district are like voters across the country, they are concerned about the shrinking middle class, low to no access to health care, the shrinking value of the working family's wages, the Iraq war, and education reform. Mike's top 10 calls for reform include:

1. Universal coverage for all

2. Improve worker education and training programs.

3. Introduce honest trade reform to secure American jobs.

4. Invest in the high-tech and renewable energy industries

5. Commit more funds to public schools

6. Increase financial aid so more students can attend college

7. Reduce the burden of student loans and credit card debt.

8. No privatization of Social Security.

9. Modernize Medicare and reform Medicate Part D to secure safe and affordable prescription drugs for all seniors.

10. End the Bushies' unjust war in Iraq and bring the troops home.

"Americans," Mike says, "are working harder than they ever have before. I think we need to stop asking our people to work harder and we need to start asking our government to work smarter."

It is crunch time. Mike's campaign has knocked on 2000 doors per week for the past several months. They have raised financial support online and registering thousands of new voters. Mike's democratic candidacy will be determined on April 22^nd under the blinding glare of the presidential primary race coming to a head in his state. With all the brouhaha overflowing in the keystone state, this is a race to watch.