Talk around the camp fire is about whom Wisconsin voters should put up against Scott Walker-Christopher Cline and the Koch Brothers, should Walker decide he has sufficiently decimated our state and escaped criminal charges.
Scott Walker running for president is not going to happen.
As for governor, some are suggesting Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse, Wisconsin).
My two cents: Ron Kind just will not cut it for Wisconsin; for the same reasons that you don't widen an ice fishing hole, jump in and go for a swim. You just don't do it.
We need Gwen Moore or Russ Feingold. And we need one of them to declare fast.
Don't wait until after August.
Showing posts with label Sen. Russ Feingold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sen. Russ Feingold. Show all posts
Nov 2, 2010
Election Report From Fitchburg (Dane County) Ward Spells Trouble for GOP
Update: See Dane County couldn’t save Feingold this time
Here's a report from what is typically a relatively low-turnout district in Fitchburg, a city adjacent to Madison in Dane County.
Same-day registrants, with a high teen-20s presence, kept three election registers busy the moment the doors opened up through mid-afternoon, with a crush expected after 5:00.
If this district is at all representative of the turn-out in Madison-centered Dane County, the Republicans are in some serious trouble.
The youth vote is alive and well.
Word is Madison and Fitchburg are expected to exceed 80-plus turn-out.
With long voting lines reported in Milwaukee, when you're watching the results pour in tonight at WTMJ, be advised that Madison wards report in last and late in Dane County.
Here's a report from what is typically a relatively low-turnout district in Fitchburg, a city adjacent to Madison in Dane County.
Same-day registrants, with a high teen-20s presence, kept three election registers busy the moment the doors opened up through mid-afternoon, with a crush expected after 5:00.
If this district is at all representative of the turn-out in Madison-centered Dane County, the Republicans are in some serious trouble.
The youth vote is alive and well.
Word is Madison and Fitchburg are expected to exceed 80-plus turn-out.
With long voting lines reported in Milwaukee, when you're watching the results pour in tonight at WTMJ, be advised that Madison wards report in last and late in Dane County.
Oct 28, 2010
Millionaire Insiders Hide Behind Group Attacking Feingold
- Rightwing Multi-Millionaires Seek Take-over of Congress -
By Lisa Graves and Brendan Fischer at the Center for Media and Democracy
An activist group called SpeechNow.Org is running ads against Senator Russ Feingold. It blames him for the deficit and claims that clean election laws he spearheaded are “attacking free speech.” But who’s really behind SpeechNow’s folksy, cartoon attack ads?
The Money Bags: One funder is multi-millionaire Fred Young, the heir of the Young Radiator fortune in Racine. He sold his Wisconsin company for over $70 million in 1998 to a group that quickly merged with Wabtec Corporation, a multinational with a history of outsourcing jobs to make goods in China and elsewhere. But even before Young sold the company, he worked to ship well-paying Wisconsin jobs out of state. Back in 1991, Young Radiator closed its Racine plant and fired 120 Wisconsin workers in order to boost his profits by outsourcing work to Iowa and Tennessee plants that did not give union-negotiated benefits. Young donated over $100,000 last month to fund attacks against Feingold, constituting the bulk of the funding. With millions in profits from helping to sell out Wisconsin’s industrial base and time on his hands, Young has become involved in Washington, D.C.-based groups, like SpeechNow.
The Political Operative: SpeechNow is spearheaded by David Keating, who formed SpeechNow with other millionaires to fight campaign finance reforms. He's an old nemesis of Senator Feingold's efforts to ban soft money and bring a little democracy to our democracy. SpeechNow has brought lawsuits against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms, and recently won a ruling lifting the prior $5,000 limit on the amount individuals could donate to a group’s electioneering efforts. That ruling stems from the Supreme Court’s January decision in Citizens United to allow corporations to spend unlimited money influencing elections. SpeechNow’s litigation paved the way for Young to give $100,000 to the group last month alone to fund attack ads in this election, and also paved the way for corporate spending to fund new groups running election ads like the American Action Network, which has spent almost $1 million dollars in ads against Feingold in this race.
The Web of Money: Keating emphasizes SpeechNow does not accept corporate donations and the group also does not pay him; instead, the D.C.-based “Club for Growth” pays him almost $200,000 a year to serve full-time as its executive director. Club for Growth also paid Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey almost $680,000 last year to act as its president and it does not reveal its major donors, although donors to its PAC are required to be disclosed. The Club for Growth opposes limits on trade that would protect American workers and is desperate to put social security trust funds into Wall Street’s hands. The Club for Growth has been called so out of touch on economic policy that conservative former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (now a Fox News commentator) dubbed it the “Club for Greed.” The Club for Growth has become a big player in many close races, spending almost $200,000 in the Wisconsin Senate race so far and millions nationwide.
The Attack: SpeechNow’s attack on Feingold accuses him of creating the federal deficit. The attack is grossly misleading. Feingold has received numerous awards from non-partisan watchdog groups, like Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Concord Coalition and others for battling pork and excessive spending. Feingold worked to balance the federal budget in the late 1990s, a successful effort which allowed Republican President George W. Bush to begin his first term with a $230 billion budget surplus that Bush turned into a trillion dollar deficit. Even in this hyper-partisan moment, Feingold works with conservative Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma]] on eliminating earmarks, and with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) on a bill to create a federal line-item veto. Feingold also voted against the $780 billion TARP bailout bill and has pushed to use excess TARP funds to pay down the deficit. SpeechNow’s misleading attack echoes deficit claims by other Feingold opponents, like the American Action Network, which is supported by Wall Street elites like the Goldman Sachs executive who led the failed Wachovia bank, which became part of the Wall Street bailout.
CMD does not endorse political candidates, but we work to protect the public's right to know about front groups and corporate PR campaigns, as part of our core mission. And, we believe Wisconsinites have a right to know who’s behind misleading attacks like SpeechNow’s -- who’s footing the bill and who stands to gain.
By Lisa Graves and Brendan Fischer at the Center for Media and Democracy
An activist group called SpeechNow.Org is running ads against Senator Russ Feingold. It blames him for the deficit and claims that clean election laws he spearheaded are “attacking free speech.” But who’s really behind SpeechNow’s folksy, cartoon attack ads?
The Money Bags: One funder is multi-millionaire Fred Young, the heir of the Young Radiator fortune in Racine. He sold his Wisconsin company for over $70 million in 1998 to a group that quickly merged with Wabtec Corporation, a multinational with a history of outsourcing jobs to make goods in China and elsewhere. But even before Young sold the company, he worked to ship well-paying Wisconsin jobs out of state. Back in 1991, Young Radiator closed its Racine plant and fired 120 Wisconsin workers in order to boost his profits by outsourcing work to Iowa and Tennessee plants that did not give union-negotiated benefits. Young donated over $100,000 last month to fund attacks against Feingold, constituting the bulk of the funding. With millions in profits from helping to sell out Wisconsin’s industrial base and time on his hands, Young has become involved in Washington, D.C.-based groups, like SpeechNow.
The Political Operative: SpeechNow is spearheaded by David Keating, who formed SpeechNow with other millionaires to fight campaign finance reforms. He's an old nemesis of Senator Feingold's efforts to ban soft money and bring a little democracy to our democracy. SpeechNow has brought lawsuits against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms, and recently won a ruling lifting the prior $5,000 limit on the amount individuals could donate to a group’s electioneering efforts. That ruling stems from the Supreme Court’s January decision in Citizens United to allow corporations to spend unlimited money influencing elections. SpeechNow’s litigation paved the way for Young to give $100,000 to the group last month alone to fund attack ads in this election, and also paved the way for corporate spending to fund new groups running election ads like the American Action Network, which has spent almost $1 million dollars in ads against Feingold in this race.
The Web of Money: Keating emphasizes SpeechNow does not accept corporate donations and the group also does not pay him; instead, the D.C.-based “Club for Growth” pays him almost $200,000 a year to serve full-time as its executive director. Club for Growth also paid Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey almost $680,000 last year to act as its president and it does not reveal its major donors, although donors to its PAC are required to be disclosed. The Club for Growth opposes limits on trade that would protect American workers and is desperate to put social security trust funds into Wall Street’s hands. The Club for Growth has been called so out of touch on economic policy that conservative former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (now a Fox News commentator) dubbed it the “Club for Greed.” The Club for Growth has become a big player in many close races, spending almost $200,000 in the Wisconsin Senate race so far and millions nationwide.
The Attack: SpeechNow’s attack on Feingold accuses him of creating the federal deficit. The attack is grossly misleading. Feingold has received numerous awards from non-partisan watchdog groups, like Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Concord Coalition and others for battling pork and excessive spending. Feingold worked to balance the federal budget in the late 1990s, a successful effort which allowed Republican President George W. Bush to begin his first term with a $230 billion budget surplus that Bush turned into a trillion dollar deficit. Even in this hyper-partisan moment, Feingold works with conservative Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma]] on eliminating earmarks, and with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) on a bill to create a federal line-item veto. Feingold also voted against the $780 billion TARP bailout bill and has pushed to use excess TARP funds to pay down the deficit. SpeechNow’s misleading attack echoes deficit claims by other Feingold opponents, like the American Action Network, which is supported by Wall Street elites like the Goldman Sachs executive who led the failed Wachovia bank, which became part of the Wall Street bailout.
CMD does not endorse political candidates, but we work to protect the public's right to know about front groups and corporate PR campaigns, as part of our core mission. And, we believe Wisconsinites have a right to know who’s behind misleading attacks like SpeechNow’s -- who’s footing the bill and who stands to gain.
Sep 23, 2010
Advice to Russ Feingold: Ron Johnson Is a Republican
Unless I am missing it, I do not see Sen. Russ Feingold mentioning that the brand, party and mission of Ron Johnson is: Republican.Russ is defining himself well in his TV spots.
But he needs to define his opponent Ron Johnson as a Republican's Republican. Associations with the Republican brand follow. As in:
- We cannot go back to eight years of Bush-Cheney-Republican Corruption and Waste
- We cannot hand control of Congress to big-money Republicans
Every ad should have a visual GOP lede-in:
- There's a reason Ron Johnon is running as a Republican ...
- Republican Ron Johnson ...
- My Republican opponent ...
Jul 28, 2010
Feingold Must Be Thinking of Renouncing the Corrupt John McCain
- John McCain and the GOP protect the sleazy, negative campaign ads run by corporations and shady interest groups as Democrats respond to the U.S. Supreme Court's outrageous Citizens United v. FEC ruling -Few thinking people took Keating Five Senator John McCain seriously as a reformist when he joined Sen. Russ Feingold in co-sponsoring campaign finance reform in the 1990s.
They were proven right repeatedly over the years, but this latest piece of evidence this week that John McCain is an unprincipled liar ought to have Feingold renoucing this corrupt pile of garbage called McCain.
The DISCLOSE bill would, as Open Congress notes, "require organizations involved in political campaigning to disclose the identity of the large donors, and to reveal their identities in any political ads they fund. It would also bar foreign corporations, government contractors and TARP recipients from making political expenditures. Notably, the bill would exempt all long-standing, non-profit organizations with more than 500,000 members from having to disclose their donor lists."
The bill passed the House in June, and Democrats may try to bring it to a vote again in September.
From Jonathan Cohn, Mavericky: GOP Thwarts Disclosure Bill:
President Obama and Democratic leaders hoped the bill would, among other things, help undo the damage of the recent Citizens United ruling, in which the Supreme Court threw out limits on corporate political spending. And since the bill merely called to publicize who was putting money into politics, rather than limit that money, Obama and the Democrats hoped they could peel off enough Republican votes to break a filibuster. They were wrong. Not one Republican voted to proceed with debate--not even after the Democrats modified the bill, in order to address GOP arguments that it would treat unions differently from other groups.
This would be a fine moment to ponder, once again, the way the filibuster thwarts democracy. Fifty-seven of the Senate’s one hundred members think the bill should pass, but they can’t act because a minority of senators has the power to thwart action.
But the real story today is the hypocrisy of what used to be the Republican Party’s moderate, sensible wing.
And then there is John McCain himself. A decade ago, McCain did more than put his name on a major piece of campaign finance legislation. He made the fight against money in politics a personal crusade, energizing supporters with statements like this one he made during a Virginia speech:I have called for the reform of campaign finance practices that have sacrificed our principles to the demands of big money special interests. I have spoken against ... [APPLAUSE] ... I have spoken against forces that have turned politics into a battle of bucks instead of a battle of ideas, and for that, my friends, and for that, my friends, I have been accused of disloyalty to my party.Nobody is accusing McCain of that anymore.
Jul 13, 2010
BP Associations Will Kill GOP's Ron Johnson in Wisconsin
Ron Johnson: On Great Lakes oil drilling: "I think we have to, get the oil where it is." ... Oil Drilling Is a "Wedge Issue," not an environmental issue.Madison, Wisconsin—This writer has taken Sen. Russ Feingold to task in the past, but now it appears that Feingold's likely general election opponent, U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson, wants to be the head cheerleader for Big Oil.
That's bad.
If this were not bad enough, Johnson wants to open the Great Lakes to Big Oil, a position he denied yesterday after Feingold announced his new commercial hitting Johnson on Big Oil, which Johnson says is just a "wedge issue."
ThinkPorogress reports, "Last month, when asked if he would support drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, Johnson — who owns more than $100,000 in BP stock — replied, 'I think we have to, get the oil where it is.'"
If you don't live in a Great Lakes state, I'll spell it out: This is a crazy idea, especially from a guy who has more money invested in Big Oil than what most people make in 10 years.
One hopes all political candidates in any of the Great Lakes states are held to account for their positions on Big Oil exploiting a tremendous natural resource.
Yesterday, Johnson released a statement saying he now opposes Great Lakes drilling: "I would not support any efforts to overturn the provision which outlaws drilling in the Great Lakes as Wisconsin’s next U.S. Senator. Let me repeat: I would reject any and all efforts to drill in the Great Lakes.”
But the Wisconsin Democratic Party is keeping the heat on the guy with over $400,000 invested in Big Oil:
U.S. Senate Candidate Ron Johnson delayed the release of personal investments in the oil industry for a month while he defended Big Oil and British Petroleum after the worst oil spill in American history.Feingold is hitting Johnson hard on the issue now, and good for him and us:
Johnson’s personal financial stake in Big Oil includes up to $315,000 in BP stock. Johnson also has as much as $100,000 in Exxon stock and $50,000 in Occidental Petroleum stock, as well as, various funds that contain additional BP and Big Oil investments.
Yet Johnson kept his Big Oil investments a secret while he repeatedly defended Big Oil and BP after the Gulf oil spill, telling national right-wing talk radio host Ed Morrissey: “This is not the time to be beating up on those guys, quite honestly.” [In the interview with Morrissey, Johnson responds to questions on government regulations of off-shore and on-shore oil drilling, asked his "gut-level reaction" to the BP disaster, Johnson says at the 46-minute mark: “This is not the time to be beating up on those guys, quite honestly.” ]
Johnson also announced his support for drilling in national wildlife areas and his opposition to more caution before undertaking new oil-drilling projects in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf.
Jun 23, 2010
Sen. Feingold Blowing Away Challenger on Veterans
Once upon a time, Republicans got giddy thinking out loud about their prospects of winning Wisconsin's seat held by Sen. Russ Feingold as they dreamed of taking over the U.S. Senate.
Forget about it. Feingold is killing his presumed challenger with a key constituency: Veterans and advocates.
Feingold's challenger, multi-millionaire Ron Johnson, does not even mention veterans on his campaign website. That's a political-moral mistake with a few wars going on, and troops and Marines still feeling the effects of war decades ago.
From the Friends of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs:
Forget about it. Feingold is killing his presumed challenger with a key constituency: Veterans and advocates.
Feingold's challenger, multi-millionaire Ron Johnson, does not even mention veterans on his campaign website. That's a political-moral mistake with a few wars going on, and troops and Marines still feeling the effects of war decades ago.
From the Friends of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs:
On June 4, 2010, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) sent his annual update letter to hundreds of members of Wisconsin’s veterans community on his extensive, most recent efforts on issues related to veterans.
Those efforts included:
- Veterans health care;
- Vet Centers;
- Iraq Burn Pits;
- Veterans Outreach;
- Veterans Jobs/Employment;
- Gulf War Illness Research;
- WWII, Civil War veterans, Alonzo Cushing.
See the full text of the letter, which has been uploaded to the Friends of WDVA document archiveon ScribD (as of today, the archive’s documents have had 3,448 reads).
Among the issues Feingold details is his work on outreach to veterans, a key WDVA-CVSO-Feingold joint initiative that has seen much progress in the last several years.
Feingold’s government website provides more details of his accomplishments for veterans, including his successful championing of two new Vet Centers for Wisconsin, in Green Bay and La Crosse.
Similarly, Feingold’s Senate campaign website has a full page of his efforts and accomplishments for veterans.
Feingold’s opponent in this year’s election, multi-millionaire Ron Johnson, has chosen not to mention or prioritize veterans -- a key constituency -- in his campaign or on his campaign website.
Apr 5, 2010
Russ Feingold Is Fine for Re-election, GOP Dreams Not Credible
Madison, Wisconsin—The lone voice in the U.S. Senate voting against the infamous 2001 Patriot Act is Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) whose vote for liberty then, and in support of the Fourth Amendment throughout his career, will help secure his re-election amid growing and groundless shouts that Feingold is in trouble.
Consider RealClear Politics (RPC), a site that takes news-opinion from the mainstream media (mostly dailies and more often from the political right) and presents the aggregation as: Real clear politics.
RPC's foumula for clarity leads predictably to erroneous results which roughly comprises the conventional political wisdom. It's that bad.
RPC 's latest RE Wisconsin is a piece from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) columnist Patrick McIlheran that Russ Feingold may be "done" in Wisconsin politics.
I can guarantee you two things: Feingold's people got a laugh out of this one, and McIlheran's analysis such as it is will be taken seriously among those formulating the conventional political wisdom.
As a writer, McIlheran is a bold sign (along with fellow MJS columnist Mike 'send-innocents-to-prison' Nichols) of the decline of the American daily newspaper—ideological and insipid.
McIlheran quotes Feingold's GOP opponent, Terrence Wall who says that "I'll win. ... Feingold's done."
Using data from the discredited Rasmussen polls, and the amazing fact that GOPers bad-mouthed Feingold at listening sessions, McIlheran agrees with Wall that Feingold just may be over, though he also allows that this all depends on former Gov. Tommy Thompson entering the race.
The problem is Thompson has not announced for the September primary; GOP candidate Wall says he's in to stay; and Thompson accepted a job in February as a capital fund advisor after making a lot of money from corporate America—an enterprise that might not present a problem in some campaign seasons but certainly does in this one after that whole economic catastrophe thing.
So though on occasion progressives too are driven to head-shaking by the idiosyncratic ways of Feingold, for example Feingold foolishly voted for the confirmation of John Roberts and against the dismissal of impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, Feingold's people would welcome Thompson as a candidate and I think Thompson and his advisers know it.
What Patrick McIlheran knows is anybody's guess.
Consider RealClear Politics (RPC), a site that takes news-opinion from the mainstream media (mostly dailies and more often from the political right) and presents the aggregation as: Real clear politics.
RPC's foumula for clarity leads predictably to erroneous results which roughly comprises the conventional political wisdom. It's that bad.
RPC 's latest RE Wisconsin is a piece from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) columnist Patrick McIlheran that Russ Feingold may be "done" in Wisconsin politics.
I can guarantee you two things: Feingold's people got a laugh out of this one, and McIlheran's analysis such as it is will be taken seriously among those formulating the conventional political wisdom.
As a writer, McIlheran is a bold sign (along with fellow MJS columnist Mike 'send-innocents-to-prison' Nichols) of the decline of the American daily newspaper—ideological and insipid.
McIlheran quotes Feingold's GOP opponent, Terrence Wall who says that "I'll win. ... Feingold's done."
Using data from the discredited Rasmussen polls, and the amazing fact that GOPers bad-mouthed Feingold at listening sessions, McIlheran agrees with Wall that Feingold just may be over, though he also allows that this all depends on former Gov. Tommy Thompson entering the race.
The problem is Thompson has not announced for the September primary; GOP candidate Wall says he's in to stay; and Thompson accepted a job in February as a capital fund advisor after making a lot of money from corporate America—an enterprise that might not present a problem in some campaign seasons but certainly does in this one after that whole economic catastrophe thing.
So though on occasion progressives too are driven to head-shaking by the idiosyncratic ways of Feingold, for example Feingold foolishly voted for the confirmation of John Roberts and against the dismissal of impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, Feingold's people would welcome Thompson as a candidate and I think Thompson and his advisers know it.
What Patrick McIlheran knows is anybody's guess.
Feb 3, 2010
Rush: Bin Laden Tape Is "Democrat Talking Points," Sounds Like "Russ Feingold"
Seems Rush Limbaugh, de facto head of the GOP, can't tell the difference between Osama Bin Laden and Democrats; and Rush singled out Sen. Russ Feingold.
Specifically, Limbaugh said the al Qaeda leader's most recent audio tape: "sounds like this could easily be [said by] Russ Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin."
Wonder how Wisconsin Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, Terrence Wall and Dave Westlake, feel about this. Will they condemn this trash?
Sen. Feingold writes to supporters: "This isn't the first time Limbaugh has crossed the line and it won't be the last, but this is the sort of slash and burn politics that we are up against. Extremists and corporate special interests are going to do everything they can do to attack Russ's character."
Specifically, Limbaugh said the al Qaeda leader's most recent audio tape: "sounds like this could easily be [said by] Russ Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin."
Wonder how Wisconsin Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, Terrence Wall and Dave Westlake, feel about this. Will they condemn this trash?
Sen. Feingold writes to supporters: "This isn't the first time Limbaugh has crossed the line and it won't be the last, but this is the sort of slash and burn politics that we are up against. Extremists and corporate special interests are going to do everything they can do to attack Russ's character."
Jan 28, 2010
White House Hits Back at GOP Justice Alito
Corporate and foreign control of government v. American People controlling government.
President Obama is lining up behind the people and the rightwing is being the rightwing. This is a debate Sen. Russ Feingold and President Obama have dreamed about.
From the journal, Politico: White House: Obama is right about Supreme Court:
See also Obama Slams Court, Hails Russ Feingold's Work.
President Obama is lining up behind the people and the rightwing is being the rightwing. This is a debate Sen. Russ Feingold and President Obama have dreamed about.
From the journal, Politico: White House: Obama is right about Supreme Court:
A senior administration official told POLITICO on Thursday morning: ‘There is a loophole that we need to address and are working with Congress to address. There are U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-controlled corporations that could influence our elections because of this ruling.’
The issue was raised by Justice John Paul Stevens in his dissent in the case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: ‘It would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.’
Stevens continued: ‘The Court all but confesses that a categorical approach to speaker identity is untenable when it acknowledges that Congress might be allowed to take measures aimed at preventing foreign individuals or associations from influencing our Nation’s political process. … Such measures have been a part of U.S. campaign finance law for many years. The notion that Congress might lack the authority to distinguish foreigners from citizens in the regulation of electioneering would certainly have surprised the Framers.’
And on Page 75, Stevens wrote: ‘Unlike voters in U.S. elections, corporations may be foreign controlled.’
See also Obama Slams Court, Hails Russ Feingold's Work.
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