Why Ron Johnson’s Reelection Is So Important

[Geee]

:

Senator Johnson is a throwback to a better era of legislator. His defeat would be a loss for Wisconsin and the nation.

 

Wisconsin’s Senate race is ranked by many as one of the most contested in the country and one of the most likely to flip. Two weeks ago, Marquette University released a poll showing Senator Ron Johnson behind former senator Russ Feingold, 47 percent to 41 percent, among likely voters. The result, coming so late in the campaign, was all the more troubling for Johnson given that Donald Trump, who handily lost Wisconsin’s primary to Ted Cruz in April, actually outperformed the senator in Marquette’s poll: Among likely voters, Hillary Clinton led Trump by a mere two points, 44 percent to 42 percent.

 

The reality of a Clinton or Trump presidency makes continued Republican control of the upper chamber all the more important, and a Johnson loss would make it that much more difficult to achieve. It would also be a shame for Wisconsin and the nation.

 

@mozartlover

 

There is NO comparison between the two:

[Geee]

Feingold has voted in favor of certain gun-control legislation, while also voting to expand certain gun rights. Feingold signed the congressional amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller, a U.S. Supreme Court case which overturned a handgun ban in Washington, D.C.

 

Feingold supports abortion rights.

 

In 1996, Feingold was in a minority of legislators who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which President Bill Clinton signed into law.[44] In an April 4, 2006 interview, Feingold announced that he favored the legalization of same-sex marriage.

 

Feingold supports the creation of a system of universal health care in America. During his first run for the Senate, he endorsed the single-payer model, in which the government pays for all healthcare costs.

 

Following his defeat, Feingold was appointed a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School. He wrote a book entitled While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call to the Post-9/11 World, and supported President Barack Obama in his reelection bid in the 2012 presidential election. In February 2012, it was announced that Feingold would be a co-chair for President Obama's re-election campaign. In 2012-13, he was the Stephen Edward Scarff Distinguished Visiting Professor at Lawrence University. In 2012, he was the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford Law School.

 

In February 2011, Feingold formed Progressives United, a Political Action Committee, and an affiliated nonprofit entity called Progressives United Inc. The stated aim of Progressives United was "directly and indirectly supporting candidates who stand up for our progressive ideals." From 2011 to 2015, the two groups raised and spent $10 million. Nearly half of the $7.1 million that the Progressives United PAC spent went to raising more money for itself. The PAC donated just $352,008, or 5% of its income, to federal candidates and political parties, with most of the rest of the budget going to overhead, including salaries or consulting fees for Feingold, his top aide and eight former staffers.[89] Feingold received $77,000 from the two groups, including $42,609 to buy hundreds of hardcover and leather-bound copies of his book, While America Sleeps. Progressives United Inc. shut down in late 2014, and the Progressives United PAC suspended its fundraising activities in May 2015 in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict with his run for the U.S. Senate.

 

On June 18, 2013, Feingold was appointed United States Special Representative for the African Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by United States Secretary of State John Kerry.[93] He announced his departure from the position on February 24, 2015.

 

Wiki

[Geee]

Early life and education

 

Johnson was born in Mankato, Minnesota, the son of Jeanette Elizabeth (née Thisius) and Dale Robert Johnson. His father was of Norwegian descent and his mother was of German ancestry. While growing up, Johnson delivered newspapers, worked as a caddy at a golf course, baled hay on his uncle's dairy farm, and worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant. He attended the University of Minnesota while working full-time and graduated in 1977 with a degree in business and accounting.

 

Business career

 

In 1979, Johnson moved to Wisconsin with his wife Jane, and both started working for PACUR, a custom sheet extruder company, with his wife's brother, Patrick Curler, for whom the company was named. PACUR had been created a few months before Johnson arrived in Wisconsin with funding from Patrick and from Jane's father Howard Curler. PACUR's sole customer for the first several years of the company's existence was a company called Bemis, which was run by Howard Curler.

 

For nearly a year, Johnson worked as the accountant and as a machine operator, trading 12-hour shifts with his brother-in-law, with whom he also shared a small cot. The company later expanded into the area of medical device packaging, which involved hiring salespeople and exporting products to other countries. In the mid-80s Pat Curler left PACUR and Johnson became CEO. In 1987, the Curler family sold PACUR to Bowater Industries for $18 million. Bowater kept Johnson on as the company's CEO. In 1997, Johnson purchased PACUR from Bowater; he remained as the company's CEO until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010.

 

Fiscal issues

 

Johnson has opposed increased government spending and the federal stimulus. He has supported broad reduction in federal tax rates, simplifying regulations on business and free-market health care options.

 

When asked if Johnson would get rid of home mortgage interest deductions (claiming mortgage interest as a tax-deductible expense), he said he "wouldn’t rule it out" as part of an effort to lower taxes and simplify the tax code.

 

Climate change

 

In a 2010 interview, Johnson called scientists who attribute global warming to man-made causes "crazy", saying the theory is "lunacy" and attributing climate change to causes other than human activity.[44] In February 2016, Johnson said "I've never denied climate change. The climate has always changed, and it always will ", while on a radio talk show August 1, 2015 on Racine, Wisconsin's WRJN-AM, Johnson said that "...the climate hasn't warmed in quite a few years. That is proven scientifically." Johnson is a cosponsor of the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would block the EPA from imposing new rules on carbon emissions.

 

Health care

 

Johnson is opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In an op-ed article written for the Wall Street Journal, Johnson spoke of his personal experience with his daughter, who was born with a congenital heart defect and suggested that the life-saving treatment she received was only possible because of the United States' free-market health care system.[48] Johnson says the PPACA “will lead to rationed care, lower the quality of care, increase medical costs and severely limit medical innovation… this law will add trillions of dollars to our nation’s debt and deficit…”[49] He is a cosponsor of legislation to suspend implementation of PPACA while legal challenges to the bill are decided.

 

Domestic oil production

 

When asked about allowing additional drilling for oil in the continental US, including the Great Lakes if oil was to be found there, Johnson responded, "We have to get the oil where it is, but we need to do it responsibly. We need to utilize American ingenuity and American technology to make sure we do it environmentally sensitively and safely." After criticism from the Feingold campaign, Johnson said in July 2010 that his answer did not mean he supported drilling in the Great Lakes. Johnson argues that America’s dependence on imported oil creates “both security and economic threats to the nation” Johnson is a cosponsor of legislation to encourage job growth, reduce energy costs, and increase tax revenue by expanding domestic oil production.

 

Social issues

 

Johnson opposes abortion except in cases of incest, rape, or when the mother's life is in danger. He opposes the funding of research that uses embryonic stem cells. Johnson has stated he disagrees with it morally and also has said that eliminating the funding of the research would help balance the federal budget.

In March 2015, Johnson voted for an amendment to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow employees to earn paid sick time.

 

Gun policy

 

Johnson is a strong supporter of gun rights. He is cosponsor of S.570, a bill that, if passed, would prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and cataloging the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns. In April 2013, Johnson was one of 12 Republican senators who signed a letter threatening to filibuster any newly introduced gun control legislation. That month, Johnson joined 45 other Senators in defeating the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, which would have required background checks on all commercial sales of guns.

 

Wiki

[Geee]

Poll: Johnson Leading Feingold By Five in Wisconsin

 

A new poll shows incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R.. Wis.) leading his Democratic opponent former Sen. Russ Feingold by five points in Wisconsin.

 

The Loras College Poll shows Johnson with 45 percent of the vote and Feingold with 40 percent.

 

The Hill mentions that this is a reversal compared to many other polls, which often showed Feingold with a significant lead over Johnson:

 

 

The Loras College survey is a sharp break from months of polls that have had Feingold on track to retake the Senate seat he lost in 2010, a GOP wave election. The former Democratic senator is leading Johnson by nearly 8 percentage points on average, according to RealClearPolitics.

 

A CBS News/YouGov poll that had Johnson down by 3 points to Feingold had also been touted earlier Monday by the GOP senator’s campaign.

 

http://freebeacon.com/politics/poll-johnson-leading-feingold-five/

[Geee]

Feingold Profited Off of Youth Summer Camp, Public Library, High School Students

 

Russ Feingold, the former Democratic senator from Wisconsin attempting to regain his old Senate seat, profited off of a youth summer camp, a public library, and high school students who were left scrambling to raise the funds to pay Feingold’s fee to appear at their school.

 

Feingold said that there would be “so many dollars to make so he could pay the bills” after leaving the Senate when questioned by the Progressive in 2002 on how he envisioned his life after politics.

 

“Yes. And if it happens to me by choice, or by the decision of the people of Wisconsin, I’m going to enjoy my life a great deal,” Feingold said. “I don’t know what I’d do, but there are so many books to read, so many golf courses to play, so many dollars to make so I can pay the bills.”

 

http://freebeacon.com/politics/feingold-profited-off-youth-summer-camp-public-library-high-school-students/

[Geee]

Feingold Attacks Johnson’s Anti-Poverty Program

 

As the Senate race in Wisconsin tightens in the last two weeks before election day, Democratic candidate Russ Feingold — who served three terms as senator before being unseated by Republican Ron Johnson in 2010 — has lashed out at an unlikely target: Johnson’s charity work. On Wisconsin Public Radio, Feingold criticized the Joseph Project, an anti-poverty program that Johnson established last fall in partnership with pastor Jerome Smith.

 

As I previously reported at NRO, the Joseph Project — operated by Smith, Johnson, and Johnson’s staff with no government funding — has recruited and trained close to 200 impoverished people in Milwaukee. Bridging the gap between open manufacturing jobs and unemployed people looking for opportunity, the project connected these individuals with employers and transported them to and from their jobs every day an hour away in Sheboygan. As of early September, the project had expanded from Milwaukee to a second location in Madison.

 

But apparently this charity program isn’t up to Feingold’s progressive standards. “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. That doesn’t make a community,” he said in a recent radio hit. He added that investment in minority-owned businesses, community policing, and public schools would be a better solution.

 

“Senator Feingold is not only denigrating the Joseph Project, he’s denigrating the dozens of hard-working people in Milwaukee and Madison who have taken these jobs and are trying to break cycles of poverty and improve their communities,” Johnson said in response to Feingold’s attack. “He owes those who have participated in the Joseph Project an apology.”

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

[Geee]

Senate Republicans smell an upset in Wisconsin battle

 

Senate Republicans are eyeing a last-minute comeback in a state long written off as a loss: Wisconsin.

The sleeper race is turning into an unexpected 11th hour battleground with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) within striking distance of his Democrat opponent, former Sen. Russ Feingold.

 

Feingold is still ahead in polling, but his lead has shrunk from the double-digit average he held for most of the summer. The former senator is clinging to a 1-point lead in a Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday, but trailing Johnson in independent voters.

 

"This race is a dead heat and the momentum is clearly with Ron Johnson. Wisconsinites are closer than ever to sending Senator Feingold back to California — for good,” said Brian Reisinger, a spokesman for Johnson’s campaign.

 

Republicans argue the race is even closer than what public polling—which has Feingold averaging a nearly 5-point lead—suggests. A GOP source said their polling shows the race tied.

 

Meanwhile, a source familiar with the Johnson campaign’s strategy added separately that their internal modeling shows the GOP senator gained a slight lead over the fall with numbers continuing to move in Johnson’s favor heading into the final week.

The polling comes as the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the race from “lean Democrat” to “toss up.”

 

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/304084-senate-republicans-smell-an-upset-in-wisconsin-battle