PolitiFact provides Senator Russ Feingold with some fresh plane reading material for his upcoming out-of-state trip.
In yet another brutal review of Mr. Clean’s utter campaign finance hypocrisy, PolitiFact confirms for the second time this cycle that Senator Feingold is breaking his promises to Wisconsinites by raking in out-of-state cash.
Back when he first set his sights on Washington, DC decades ago, Senator Feingold made "a pledge for the future" to fund his campaigns with Wisconsin donations:
As PolitiFact notes, "the future is here, and Feingold has failed to keep his promise."
Just as Hillary Clinton scrubbed her secret email server with BleachBit, Mr. Clean scrubbed his garage door with hypocrisy-soaked cash. 70% of individual contributions to Senator Feingold’s 2016 campaign have come from out-of-staters.
In January, Mr. Clean tried to weasel his way out of his own promises by claiming that his 1992 "for the future" was only "for that term":
[youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-moy598JMf8&feature=youtu.be"]
Even Senator Feingold’s spokesman – who "declined repeated requests," couldn’t spin his boss’ lie to the people of Wisconsin:
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Feingold’s campaign, declined repeated requests to comment on how Feingold reconciles the "for the future" line with his current assertion that the promise, from the start, was only for the campaign at hand.
As he literally sells the very principles upon which he used to pride himself, Senator Feingold has become everything he used to hate about politics and politicians.
Did Russ Feingold break promise to fund campaign primarily in state?
PolitiFact
By Eric Litke
September 7, 2016
In 1992, Democrat Russ Feingold introduced himself to Wisconsinites as a regular guy supported by regular guys (and gals).
He listed campaign promises on his garage door and repeatedly said he would take the majority of his funding from Wisconsinites — not out-of-state residents or interest groups.
He stayed true to that pledge throughout campaigns in 1992, 1998, 2004 and 2010 — when he was unseated by Republican Ron Johnson. In the 2016 rematch, Feingold has reversed course and is now taking the majority of his money from out of state.
Johnson frames this as a broken promise in a recent campaign ad, noting that at the time Feingold’s pledge originated he did not limit it to any time period. Rather, he declared he was making the commitment "for the future."
Let’s take a closer look.
Feingold’s promise
PolitiFact Wisconsin examined this issue before, giving Feingold a "Full Flop" in October 2015 for reversing his position and accepting a majority of his funding from out of state.
The Flip-O-Meter ruling only examined whether Feingold had changed his position — which he clearly did. We are taking another look because Johnson now alleges that in doing so Feingold broke a promise to always get the majority of his funding from Wisconsinites.
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If you ask Feingold now, his pledge was always for the campaign at hand.
"When I said in 1992, whenever I said that I would get a majority of my contributions from Wisconsin citizens, I made that pledge for that term," Feingold said in January 2016 as part of an "On The Issues with Mike Gousha" appearance at Marquette University Law School.
Let’s go to the tape.
Feingold stated in a 1992 TV ad that he would "rely on Wisconsin citizens, not out-of-staters, to pay for this campaign" — a promise he touted often.
But he also took it a step further.
In an August 1992 primary debate on C-SPAN, an opponent accused Feingold of making a self-serving pledge because he was a newcomer to national races who didn’t have the out-of-state contacts his opponents did.
"It’s not just self-serving, because I’m promising it for the future," Feingold responded. "I’m saying that’s a pledge that I’m going to keep. I’m not going to get in (office) and go, ‘OK, where are the PACs and where are the out-of-state contributions?’
"I’m making a pledge for the future."
That is clearly not a pledge Feingold is keeping this time around. An analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Responsive Politics shows 70 percent of individual contributions to Feingold’s campaign during this election cycle have come from out of state.
…
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Feingold’s campaign, declined repeated requests to comment on how Feingold reconciles the "for the future" line with his current assertion that the promise, from the start, was only for the campaign at hand.
Our rating
Feingold used the words "pledge" and "promise" in 1992 while asserting his grassroots funding plan was for that election as well as "for the future." The future is here, and Feingold has failed to keep his promise.
Not only that, he claims he never said the pledge applied going forward, despite video evidence to the contrary.
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We rate Johnson’s claim True.