Promoted from diaries by Brian Faughnan.

Sean Duffy seems like an excellent candidate in a swing seat. That’s right – the seat held by Obey leans only marginally toward the Democrats. Duffy is the sort of bright, young candidate who can give America’s spender-in-chief a serious challenge.

Today, I’m announcing that I’m a candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional district. I’m challenging Congress’s leading spender, David Obey. We have a chance to make history in the 7th in 2010, but I can only do it with your help. I hope you’ll start by joining our team at DuffyforCongress.com.

First, I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself.

For the last seven years, I’ve been the District Attorney of Ashland County, and I’m proud of my over 90 percent trial success rate. I was raised in Hayward. Rachel and I are proud to be raising our five kids in Northern Wisconsin – because there’s no better place to raise a family than in the great state of Wisconsin.

I’m running for Congress because I think it’s time for new voices and new leadership in Washington. For more than 200 years our country has prospered under the philosophy that the individual – not the government – is the engine of American prosperity. That small businesses and dedicated workers – not government agencies and bureaucrats – generate economic growth and wealth. And yet, in response to the current financial crisis, our leaders in Washington have put their faith, not in the American people, but in the government. My speech to an April 15th Tea Party in Madison sums up my commitment to fiscal responsibility:

Under the direction of politicians like David Obey, our government is doing things our founding fathers never intended for it to do. For the first time in our country’s history, the federal government is taking over private companies like GM and AIG and putting bureaucrats in charge of business decisions.

Last February, Members of Congress voted to spend almost $800 billion of our money in a stimulus bill that many of them didn’t even read – and how could they? They had less than 24 hours to read over 1000 pages of legislation. But David Obey did read the bill. Not only did he read the bill – he wrote the bill. That’s right, he is the author of that pork-filled stimulus package.

Of course, Washington tells us that the stimulus, the bailouts and budget increases are temporary, “emergency” spending. That once the economy recovers, we’ll go on a financial diet. But I’ve never heard of a government program that retired itself, or a bureaucrat that said, “Well, we’ve accomplished our goal – thanks, taxpayers – now we’re going home.” Have you? They will only shut their doors when we send representatives to Washington who will do it for them!

It’s time to bring fiscal sanity to Washington, and the only way that’s going to happen is for hard-working people, people who know what it’s like to balance a family budget, to decide it’s time for a change. I’m one of those people. That’s why I’m running for Congress, and that’s why I need your support.

Please share your thoughts with me in the comments. I look forward to coming back here, reading them all, and weighing in. And don’t forget to join the conversation on our blog at DuffyforCongress.com, or follow me (@Duffy4Congress) on Twitter. I look forward to working with you to retire David Obey and bring real change to the 7th district.