In case you missed it, The Capital Times reports on the continued questions surrounding the PAC and its use to pad the pockets of Senator Feingold and his former staffers:
In Progressives United, Democratic Senate candidate Russ Feingold’s opponents have seen an opportunity to attack.
Since the launch of his 2016 campaign, Republicans have accused the former senator of violating his own principles in the formation of his political action committee, which he founded shortly after Republican Ron Johnson unseated him in 2010…
…Critics continue to question why the PAC donated such a small percentage of its income directly to candidates and causes, drawing comparisons between Progressives United and a group of PACs with a reputation for a small return-on-investment…
…At the crux of the charges of "hypocrisy" is the PAC’s breakdown of expenditures. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report this summer found Progressives United gave just 5.6 percent of its income to federal candidates and political parties. Republican officials said that was proof the longtime campaign finance reform advocate had a habit of saying one thing and doing another…
…Critics continue to question why so much of the PAC’s money went back into fundraising for itself. In the 2012 election cycle, about 49 percent of its income was spent on fundraising, and in the 2014 cycle that total was 54 percent. In contrast, 7.4 percent of the PAC’s income went to candidates and political parties in the 2012 election cycle. That dropped down to just 2 percent in the 2014 cycle…
…A spokesman for Johnson’s campaign said the way Progressives United was run "shows just how far Sen. Feingold is willing to test the bounds of hypocrisy to claw his way back to Washington."
"The fact that Progressives United spent lavishly on salaries, travel and even Sen. Feingold’s book is bad enough," said Johnson spokesman Brian Reisinger in an email. "The fact that so much of its money went back into fundraising across the country makes clear that it was never about supporting candidates or causes as Sen. Feingold originally stated — it was a shadow campaign, plain and simple, meant to fuel his political ambitions."
Read the full article here.