Feingold defends PAC, hits Johnson on Trump
Democrat Russ Feingold defended his use of a political action committee on Thursday and criticized Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for supporting Donald Trump for president.
Speaking to reporters on Milwaukee's north side, Feingold reacted to a new TV spot by Johson that's critical of Feingold and his Progressives United PAC.
Titled "In It for Himself," the ad says that in 2011 Feingold, a former three-term senator, set up Progressives United and that "it was supposed to support candidates."
"But that's not what he did," the ad continues, focusing on how Progressives United gave only 5% of its income to federal candidates. The ad refers to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article and the headline, "Russ Feingold's PAC funded fees, salaries for former staffers, himself," and other news accounts.
The ad is part of a seven-figure TV buy that will take the Johnson campaign to election day. The Johnson campaign has sought to portray Feingold as a career politician who says one thing and does another.
Feingold told reporters:
“Very clear. It's simply false. It's intentionally misleading and they know that because they don’t want to talk about the fact that Senator Johnson not only loves the current finance system, but he is the one who is benefiting from several super PACs. And I am not."
During their second debate, Johnson claimed Progressives United was "basically a money-making machine," that spent a sizable chunk of money on salaries.
Responding to a question about Johnson's support for Trump, Feingold said politicians at this stage in the election should be putting politics aside for the country.
"Look, this is a time when people have to put their country first over their political party or their political future and a number of other Republican senators who are in tough elections for re-election have had the decency to say, ‘Look, of course, I am not going to support Trump. He shouldn’t be president.’ ”
Johnson has distanced himself from Trump but says that he and Trump are both "change agents." Johnson campaigned in Eau Claire and Wausau Thursday with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina.)
Feingold also said he had not been critical of Johnson's involvement with the Joseph Project, an inner-city jobs program in Sheboygan County. Johnson helped launch the project. The year-old program is run out of Greater Praise Church of God in Christ in Milwaukee and helps people with skills like interviewing and resumes.
"These programs are very valuable," Feingold told reporters on Thursday, adding that help for the disadvantaged requires a multifaceted approach. "There needs to be much more done to make a community a community," Feingold said.
In an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio this week, Feingold, said: "It's not enough to pick people up in a van and send them away a couple hours and have them come back exhausted at the end of the day."
Johnson reacted sharply and said it was "literally sad" when someone like Feingold would "denigrate" a program that has helped people find employment.
On Thursday, Feingold was joined at a rally to get out the vote in Milwaukee's central city by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee.)
Booker, the former mayor of Newark, said that voting and participating in the political process is the antidote to Republican policies aimed at limiting the vote, especially among people of color.
Also on Thursday, Johnson released a radio commercial that criticizes a federal judge in December 2014 for suspending state management of the gray wolf population in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. That has led to a growing number of wolves in northern Wisconsin and the other states and has led to increased conflicts with humans.
Johnson says he advanced federal legislation allowing Wisconsin and the other states to manage wolf populations.