Wis. Senate race pits maverick against 'rich guy'
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race seems to boil down to the question of who's more qualified: a three-term incumbent or a manufacturer who's never held public office but has 30 years of business experience.
With a restless anti-incumbent mood throughout much of the country, conventional wisdom suggests that voters might prefer the challenger, Republican businessman Ron Johnson. Indeed, Johnson has a slight lead in the polls over Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.
But Feingold has been popular throughout his political career, so much so that he'd likely be cruising to a fourth term right now if the economy hadn't tanked. Instead the race has tightened, developing into one of the most hard-fought elections in the nation.
Each candidate has emphasized his opposition to "politics as usual" in Washington. Feingold, 57, says he's a maverick who doesn't toe the party line, while Johnson, 55, calls himself a "citizen legislator" who can restore common sense and financial restraint to Congress.
Both campaigns have flooded the airwaves with commercials.
Johnson's portray him as a political outsider. In one, he says the U.S. Senate has too many lawyers and too few number-crunchers like himself.
"I'm not a politician," he says. "I'm an accountant and a manufacturer."
Feingold's ads highlight his maverick streak. The senator says in one that little has changed since he was first elected in 1992, after painting a pledge on his garage door to be an independent fighter in Washington.
"I continue to always keep my promise to put the people of Wisconsin ahead of any party or corporate interests," he says.
A third candidate also will be on the ballot. Rob Taylor, a software engineer from Cumberland, is running as an independent for the Constitution Party of Wisconsin. However, he has made no effort to introduce himself to voters.
Johnson, a multimillionaire, has financed much of his campaign himself. He had contributed $6.8 million of his own money as of Sept. 30, according to his latest campaign-finance report, and has said he's willing to spend as much as it takes to unseat his opponent.
Feingold, meanwhile, is one of the Senate's least affluent members, reporting a net worth of $440,000 earlier this year. Yet he has always been a formidable fundraiser and raised $4.2 million between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Johnson raised $3.3 million from donors in the same quarter and added $5.3 million from his own pocket.
That means both candidates have the ability to mount an all-out blitz on the airwaves in the final weeks of the race.
___
Russ Feingold has made a career out of doing things his way.
When the Patriot Act passed the Senate by a vote of 98-1 soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Feingold was the one. (He called it a dangerous infringement on civil liberties.)
When every other Democratic senator voted for Wall Street reform this year, Feingold didn't, saying it didn't go far enough.
When he pushed for campaign finance reform, he teamed up with a Republican - Sen. John McCain - to produce the McCain Feingold law. (Feingold has said bipartisanship is key to getting things done.)
He traces his independence back to his childhood. While politics and religion are taboo topics at some dinner tables, he says that wasn't the case in his Janesville home. His family had spirited conversations that helped him hone his debating skills and sparked his desire to enter politics.
Feingold was always a gifted student. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with honors, became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and earned his law degree with honors from Harvard University.
He practiced law for six years in Madison and then served three four-year terms in the Wisconsin Senate.
He won his first of three straight U.S. Senate races in 1992. His first win was the most difficult, mainly because of a brutal three-way Democratic primary. His two leading opponents were better funded but took so many shots at each other that Feingold won the nomination by staying out of the fray and running a largely positive campaign.
In the Senate he serves on a number of powerful committees, including Judiciary and Intelligence.
Feingold has always been one of the most vocal critics of the war in Iraq, saying it took resources away from fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He had called on President Barack Obama to announce timelines for troop removal from Iraq, and once that happened earlier this year, he called for a similar timeline to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
In 2006, he introduced a resolution to censure then-President George W. Bush for authorizing a warrantless wiretapping program. The measure drew little support from other Democrats but cemented Feingold's reputation for standing up for his principles, even when they were unpopular.
A smooth talker who enjoys meeting voters, Feingold has kept his 1992 promise to hold listening sessions in all 72 Wisconsin counties every year.
___
Ron Johnson says he didn't think about running for the U.S. Senate until the federal health care reform bill passed earlier this year. That law, he's fond of saying, is the greatest assault on freedom in his lifetime - and the impetus for his run.
That story contradicts what he said early in the race. He once told reporters he'd been watching Fox News when a commentator noted that Feingold was vulnerable, and challenged "a rich guy from Wisconsin" to step up to the plate to unseat him.
"I kind of looked at (my wife) Jane and said 'Is he, like, talking to me?'" said Johnson, who runs a plastics company in Oshkosh.
Johnson started by delivering well-received speeches at two tea party rallies. He said he waited to enter the Senate race until he was certain former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson had decided against a run.
The state political party endorsed him six days after he declared his candidacy, choosing him over three Republican challengers who were each seen as vulnerable.
Johnson's main appeal to the state party was that he has plenty of money and has been willing to spend it.
He cruised to an easy win in the September primary with 85 percent of the vote. His lack of serious competition allowed him to focus early on attacking Feingold while avoiding bruising blows from Republican opponents.
Johnson grew up in Minnesota. He didn't finish high school, opting instead to start early at the University of Minnesota. He earned a degree in accounting and later entered a night MBA program but dropped out short of getting his degree to join his brother-in-law's fledgling company, Pacur.
Johnson has called himself a co-founder of the company but has since acknowledged that he joined several months after it was established. He started as a machine operator and accountant and eventually became its president.
The company, which Johnson's campaign says has about 120 employees, is private so it doesn't have to release sales and revenue numbers. Nor does it have to release executives' salaries.
However, Johnson has released his tax forms for 2008, which list total income of $1.4 million that year. His Oshkosh home was valued at $1 million last year.
Democrats have hammered Johnson for comments about business they say are hypocritical.
Johnson has criticized the government for giving subsidies to businesses, saying the interference hinders free markets. It's not up to the government to pick winners and losers, he says.
However, his own company benefited from a number of government programs. Pacur received a $75,000 construction grant and access to low-interest loans, and it saved on health care costs by hiring inmates through a state program.
Johnson has served on the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce and Oshkosh Opera House Foundation.
He also was a member of the finance council of the Green Bay Diocese, in which capacity he argued against a state bill that would have made it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers. He said the bill, which didn't pass, would have had the unintended consequence of creating "economic havoc" for countless private organizations that serve children.
He has stumbled on occasion on the campaign trail. He drew scorn when he said he "absolutely (does) not believe" in the science of "man-caused climate change" and sunspot activity might be to blame.
He also drew criticism when he made comments during the April 2010 oil spill that seemed sympathetic to BP PLC. Later, his ambiguous answer as to whether he favored drilling for oil in the Great Lakes prompted Feingold's campaign to launch a TV ad attacking him on the issue.
If Johnson wins, he'll become the state's first Republican senator since 1992.
source
If Ron Johnson wins please call the police and have them come and put me on a 72 hour psych hold or something because I will honestly be suicidal.
With a restless anti-incumbent mood throughout much of the country, conventional wisdom suggests that voters might prefer the challenger, Republican businessman Ron Johnson. Indeed, Johnson has a slight lead in the polls over Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.
But Feingold has been popular throughout his political career, so much so that he'd likely be cruising to a fourth term right now if the economy hadn't tanked. Instead the race has tightened, developing into one of the most hard-fought elections in the nation.
Each candidate has emphasized his opposition to "politics as usual" in Washington. Feingold, 57, says he's a maverick who doesn't toe the party line, while Johnson, 55, calls himself a "citizen legislator" who can restore common sense and financial restraint to Congress.
Both campaigns have flooded the airwaves with commercials.
Johnson's portray him as a political outsider. In one, he says the U.S. Senate has too many lawyers and too few number-crunchers like himself.
"I'm not a politician," he says. "I'm an accountant and a manufacturer."
Feingold's ads highlight his maverick streak. The senator says in one that little has changed since he was first elected in 1992, after painting a pledge on his garage door to be an independent fighter in Washington.
"I continue to always keep my promise to put the people of Wisconsin ahead of any party or corporate interests," he says.
A third candidate also will be on the ballot. Rob Taylor, a software engineer from Cumberland, is running as an independent for the Constitution Party of Wisconsin. However, he has made no effort to introduce himself to voters.
Johnson, a multimillionaire, has financed much of his campaign himself. He had contributed $6.8 million of his own money as of Sept. 30, according to his latest campaign-finance report, and has said he's willing to spend as much as it takes to unseat his opponent.
Feingold, meanwhile, is one of the Senate's least affluent members, reporting a net worth of $440,000 earlier this year. Yet he has always been a formidable fundraiser and raised $4.2 million between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Johnson raised $3.3 million from donors in the same quarter and added $5.3 million from his own pocket.
That means both candidates have the ability to mount an all-out blitz on the airwaves in the final weeks of the race.
___
Russ Feingold has made a career out of doing things his way.
When the Patriot Act passed the Senate by a vote of 98-1 soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Feingold was the one. (He called it a dangerous infringement on civil liberties.)
When every other Democratic senator voted for Wall Street reform this year, Feingold didn't, saying it didn't go far enough.
When he pushed for campaign finance reform, he teamed up with a Republican - Sen. John McCain - to produce the McCain Feingold law. (Feingold has said bipartisanship is key to getting things done.)
He traces his independence back to his childhood. While politics and religion are taboo topics at some dinner tables, he says that wasn't the case in his Janesville home. His family had spirited conversations that helped him hone his debating skills and sparked his desire to enter politics.
Feingold was always a gifted student. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with honors, became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and earned his law degree with honors from Harvard University.
He practiced law for six years in Madison and then served three four-year terms in the Wisconsin Senate.
He won his first of three straight U.S. Senate races in 1992. His first win was the most difficult, mainly because of a brutal three-way Democratic primary. His two leading opponents were better funded but took so many shots at each other that Feingold won the nomination by staying out of the fray and running a largely positive campaign.
In the Senate he serves on a number of powerful committees, including Judiciary and Intelligence.
Feingold has always been one of the most vocal critics of the war in Iraq, saying it took resources away from fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He had called on President Barack Obama to announce timelines for troop removal from Iraq, and once that happened earlier this year, he called for a similar timeline to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
In 2006, he introduced a resolution to censure then-President George W. Bush for authorizing a warrantless wiretapping program. The measure drew little support from other Democrats but cemented Feingold's reputation for standing up for his principles, even when they were unpopular.
A smooth talker who enjoys meeting voters, Feingold has kept his 1992 promise to hold listening sessions in all 72 Wisconsin counties every year.
___
Ron Johnson says he didn't think about running for the U.S. Senate until the federal health care reform bill passed earlier this year. That law, he's fond of saying, is the greatest assault on freedom in his lifetime - and the impetus for his run.
That story contradicts what he said early in the race. He once told reporters he'd been watching Fox News when a commentator noted that Feingold was vulnerable, and challenged "a rich guy from Wisconsin" to step up to the plate to unseat him.
"I kind of looked at (my wife) Jane and said 'Is he, like, talking to me?'" said Johnson, who runs a plastics company in Oshkosh.
Johnson started by delivering well-received speeches at two tea party rallies. He said he waited to enter the Senate race until he was certain former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson had decided against a run.
The state political party endorsed him six days after he declared his candidacy, choosing him over three Republican challengers who were each seen as vulnerable.
Johnson's main appeal to the state party was that he has plenty of money and has been willing to spend it.
He cruised to an easy win in the September primary with 85 percent of the vote. His lack of serious competition allowed him to focus early on attacking Feingold while avoiding bruising blows from Republican opponents.
Johnson grew up in Minnesota. He didn't finish high school, opting instead to start early at the University of Minnesota. He earned a degree in accounting and later entered a night MBA program but dropped out short of getting his degree to join his brother-in-law's fledgling company, Pacur.
Johnson has called himself a co-founder of the company but has since acknowledged that he joined several months after it was established. He started as a machine operator and accountant and eventually became its president.
The company, which Johnson's campaign says has about 120 employees, is private so it doesn't have to release sales and revenue numbers. Nor does it have to release executives' salaries.
However, Johnson has released his tax forms for 2008, which list total income of $1.4 million that year. His Oshkosh home was valued at $1 million last year.
Democrats have hammered Johnson for comments about business they say are hypocritical.
Johnson has criticized the government for giving subsidies to businesses, saying the interference hinders free markets. It's not up to the government to pick winners and losers, he says.
However, his own company benefited from a number of government programs. Pacur received a $75,000 construction grant and access to low-interest loans, and it saved on health care costs by hiring inmates through a state program.
Johnson has served on the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce and Oshkosh Opera House Foundation.
He also was a member of the finance council of the Green Bay Diocese, in which capacity he argued against a state bill that would have made it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers. He said the bill, which didn't pass, would have had the unintended consequence of creating "economic havoc" for countless private organizations that serve children.
He has stumbled on occasion on the campaign trail. He drew scorn when he said he "absolutely (does) not believe" in the science of "man-caused climate change" and sunspot activity might be to blame.
He also drew criticism when he made comments during the April 2010 oil spill that seemed sympathetic to BP PLC. Later, his ambiguous answer as to whether he favored drilling for oil in the Great Lakes prompted Feingold's campaign to launch a TV ad attacking him on the issue.
If Johnson wins, he'll become the state's first Republican senator since 1992.
source
If Ron Johnson wins please call the police and have them come and put me on a 72 hour psych hold or something because I will honestly be suicidal.