In 2010, Senator Feingold said he would “absolutely” rather lose than see outside groups airing ads on his behalf:

  • In 2010, Feingold Said He Would “Absolutely” Rather Lose Than See Outside Groups Airing Ads On His Behalf. “One of his signature achievements was McCain-Feingold, which has been largely dismantled by the U.S. Supreme Court, but he is sticking to a pledge not to take outside money. He wrote the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee again this year asking that it not intervene on his behalf and told POLITICO that he would ‘absolutely’ rather lose than see outside groups airing ads on his behalf.” (Ben Smith, “Russ Feingold’s Last Stand,” Politico, 10/31/10)

  • Feingold Said He’d "Rather Be Right Than Re-Elected." “Asked how close he was to saying, ‘I’d rather be right than re-elected,’ Mr. Feingold answered: ‘Oh, I’m there already. Somebody told me Sam Houston once said he intended to tell the truth and suffer the consequences, and that sounds fine to me.’” (R. W. Apple Jr. “Campaign Funds At Center Of Wisconsin Race,” The New York Times, 10/23/98)

  • In 1998, Feingold Said "No Career, Including Mine, Is As Important As Breaking The Hold Of This System Of Legalized Bribery." “In effect, Mr. Feingold is gambling his political career on the premise that he can stick up for the principles embodied in his campaign finance bill, specifically its ban on soft money, and still win a second term. From his point of view, he said, ‘No career, including mine, is as important as breaking the hold of this system of legalized bribery.’” (R. W. Apple Jr. “Campaign Funds At Center Of Wisconsin Race,” The New York Times, 10/23/98)

Now, it appears as though candidate Feingold would absolutely rather see outside groups air ads on his behalf than lose:

The Daily Caller, 5/30/16: Russ Feingold Flip-Flops His Stance On Dark Money

The Washington Free Beacon, 5/31/16: Feingold Cozying Up to Dark Money Groups Despite Past Criticism

If Wisconsinites can’t trust Mr. Clean on the very issue upon which he used to pride himself, what issue can they trust him on?

Stanford Law School – particularly for the hundreds of thousands spent on his salary, should hope that its students will heed the lessons professed by Russ Feingold better than Russ Feingold himself.

Secret dark money donors and California liberals are funding his broken promises but Feingold will ultimately be the one left to pay for them in November.

ICYMI, check out some lowlights of Mr. Clean’s hypocrisy from this morning’s headlines:

Russ Feingold Flip-Flops His Stance On Dark Money

The Daily Caller

By Juliegrace Brufke

May 30, 2016

http://bit.ly/1WWqvW1

Former Sen. Russ Feingold failed to denounce six groups associated with dark money – which he has strongly criticized in the past – for running campaign ads against his opponent, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.

The Environmental Defense Action Fund, VoteVets.Org, NARAL Pro-Choice, Planned Parenthood, American Bridge and the League of Conservation Voters spent more than $2 million in attack ads against the incumbent by the end of 2015.

Feingold even held a rally with the League of Conservation Voters – a group dubbed “one of the nation’s strongest ‘dark money’ forces” in politics by The Center of Public Integrity – in late May.

It appears the former senator has completely changed his tune on third-party groups. Back in 1998, he told the National Democratic Senatorial Committee to “get the hell out of my state” after offering to dump $425,000 into an ad campaign for him.

Feingold was one of the strongest critics of the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United, which allowed non-profits to spend an unlimited amount of funds for political advocacy without disclosing donors, slamming the justices for being “politically naive.”

Feingold Cozying Up to Dark Money Groups Despite Past Criticism

The Washington Free Beacon

By Joe Schoffstall

May 31, 2016

http://bit.ly/1UrfYi4

Russ Feingold, the former Democratic senator from Wisconsin who is running again in an attempt to win back his old seat, is positioning himself closer to dark money groups despite his previous disdain towards such entities.

Feingold, who had previously spent 18 years in Washington, recently attended a rally with the D.C.-based League of Conservation Voters, a far-left environmental group that “works to turn environmental values into national, state, and local priorities.”

The group began running some of the earliest ads in the Wisconsin senate race hitting Sen. Ron Johnson, who defeated Feingold in 2010.

Nearly $100,000 was spent to run the two television ads throughout the state. The League of Conservation Voters, which contains a dark-money arm, is not disclosing the source of who is funding their advertisements against Johnson.

Feingold said in 2011 that any Democrats who use anonymous sources with unlimited money, such at the League’s dark money arm, are “dancing with the devil.”

“Democrats shouldn’t be in the game of influencing elections with anonymous, unlimited money. It’s dancing with the devil,” he said at the time.

In addition to now allowing help from dark money groups, Feingold has also received hundreds of thousands in bundled lobbyist contributions.

Feingold has taken in almost $400,000 in bundled lobbyist contributions from a handful of far-left organizations including the League of Conservation Voters and the J Street PAC, a group many supporters of Israel say is opposed to Israel’s best interests.

These actions appear to run counter to the former senator’s beliefs as he vehemently opposed lobbyist cash during his 18-year span in Washington.

While in the Senate, Feingold positioned himself of the front lines of campaign finance reform and fought for stricter ethics legislation that included a requirement to disclose bundled lobbyist contributions.

“The public voted for change last November in part because it was sick and tired of the way Washington works. The final lobbying and ethics reform bill that Congress will consider this week is landmark legislation,” Feingold said in 2007. “It includes a strong lobbyist gift ban, tough new restrictions on privately funded travel and corporate jet flights, much needed additional disclosure of lobbying activities, unprecedented new disclosure of all of the ways that lobbyists provide financial support to members of Congress, including bundling campaign contributions, a provision to slow the revolving door between the halls of Congress and the lobbying world, and far-reaching earmark reform.”

Feingold also broke his long-held “Garage Door Pledge” this cycle that included a promise of relying on Wisconsin citizens for a majority of his campaign money. “I’m promising it for the future … I’m saying that’s a pledge I am going to keep,” he said at a Democratic primary debate in 1992.

This election, 70 percent of his itemized individual contributions are coming from outside of the state.

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