Unlike a fine California wine, Senator Feingold’s campaign has not gotten better with time. Feingold’s desperate campaign to return to Washington, DC has been plagued by scandals and hypocrisy.
Below are some of Mr. Clean’s worst hits since announcing his fifth Senate campaign. Over the course of the past year, Wisconsinites learned more from Russ Feingold than he could ever teach his Stanford students.
May 2015: Wisconsinites learned that Professor Feingold is, in fact, running for the seat from which they fired him from instead of the open seat resulting from Senator Barbara Boxer’s forthcoming retirement.
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After having to prove that he was in the state he seeks to serve when he announced his candidacy via YouTube, Senator Feingold jetted back to his teaching gig at Stanford after a quick visit to Wisconsin.
- In contrast, businessman Ron Johnson was joined by hundreds of supporters when he launched his campaign earlier this month at the manufacturing company he started back when Senator Feingold was plotting his first run for political office.
June 2015: Wisconsinites learned that the career politician they thought they knew has changed.
- In the first of a seemingly never-ending barrage of bombshell stories exposing his campaign finance hypocrisy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "Russ Feingold’s PAC funded salaries for former staffers, himself." The senator who used to pride himself on campaign finance reform eroded to the career politician who set up a scam PAC to pad his own pockets.
July 2015: Wisconsinites learned that Feingold’s first rule of trying to go back to Washington is to never talk about trying to go back to Washington.
- The Washington Free Beacon reported on the embarrassing lengths to which Russ Feingold went to distance himself from…Russ Feingold. Given his failed record during the eighteen years he spent in Washington, it’s no wonder why the Feingold campaign instructed his supporters to never say "go back to the Senate" as "they want to totally get away from all that."
August 2015: Wisconsinites learned that after they fired him in 2010, Mr. Clean cashed in on speaking fees.
- Like he said in a 2002 interview, there would be "so many dollars to make" when he left the Senate. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "Senator Feingold, critic of speaking fees as senator, cashed in out of office" by collecting $103,117 from speaking fees, think tanks, and even honoraria from a YMCA.
September 2015: Wisconsinites learned to question what they learned in May as Professor Feingold returned to his California home for another semester of teaching and fundraising.
- Homecoming arrived early last year for Professor Feingold, who returned to his new state of California to lecture Stanford students on his nearly two decades of experience in the Senate. The NRSC welcomed Professor Feingold back to California with our award-winning September video and have made sure to keep up the school spirit ever since with our "Stanford Tree."
In October 2015, Wisconsinites learned that a Tomah VA rep sought the help of Senator Russ Feingold regarding the over-prescription of opiates as early as 2008.
- Gannett reported on the memos marked "hand-delivered" from the union president of the Tomah VA to Senator Feingold. The memos outlined the over-presceiption of opiates "five years before a 35-year-old Marine died there when doctors prescribed him a fatal mixture of drugs."
In November 2015, Wisconsinites learned that Senator Russ Feingold’s special talent is his ability to eat appetizers and his own words at the same time.
- Back in November, Roll Call reported that Mr. Clean engaged in the practices he once touted as the paradigm of what’s wrong with Washington. Feingold wants his job back so badly that he was willing to sell his principles to the highest bidder at a 201 Bar fundraiser – the very venue where, according to Feingold himself, lobbyists buy influence.
In December 2015, Wisconsinites learned more about the "stark divide on national security" between Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold, the only senator who voted against intelligence surveillance of terrorists following 9/11.
- It’s unfortunate that out of all the principles he decided to abandon, Senator Feingold still remains committed to championing dangerously weak national security policies. Feingold, who voted against establishing the Department of Homeland Security, is "all in" for Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and "fully supports" his campaign promise to close Gitmo.
In January 2016, Wisconsinites learned that Senator Russ Feingold still defends his deciding vote for ObamaCare.
- During his reintroduction to Wisconsin after returning back from another semester at Stanford, Senator Feingold defended his deciding vote for ObamaCare as "the right vote." All of that traveling back and forth across the country must have caused him to forget to mention the $1.8 billion in additional taxes on Wisconsin families from ObamaCare, the major Wisconsin insurers that have gone out of business, and the 4.7% premium hike.
In February 2016, Wisconsinites learned what it took to finally get Senator Russ Feingold back into his Middleton home: the prospect of chiming in on the Democratic presidential primary.
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Back in February, Senator Feingold opted to skip the debate in Milwaukee.
- What Wisconsinites still have not learned is who Senator Feingold voted for during April’s presidential primary (in which Republicans cast over 100,000 more ballots than did Democrats): a self-avowed socialist or a candidate whose actions as secretary of state are under FBI investigation.
In March 2016, Wisconsinites learned that as Senator Russ Feingold "rakes in national money," they only fund 30% of his campaign. If Mr. Clean had a dollar for every devastating story like the ones below…perhaps he wouldn’t have resorted to breaking his infamous 1992 Garage Door Pledge.
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National Journal: "Feingold’s Early Fundraising Breaks Longtime Campaign-Finance Pledge"
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PolitiFact: "Russ Feingold changes his tune on campaign contributions"
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The Washington Free Beacon: "Nearly 70 Percent of Feingold’s Contributions Are Coming From Outside Wisconsin"
- Wisconsin State Journal: "Feingold rakes in national money"
In April 2016, Wisconsinites learned that Senator Russ Feingold is the top beneficiary of his own scam PAC.
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Mr. Clean manufactured Progressives United in 2011 to serve as his national fundraising Rolodex in 2016. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last month: "Feingold’s campaign bought the mailing list created by Progressives United PAC and has raised about $290,000 from individuals who donated to the PAC in 2014…$60,000 more than the total amount given by Progressives United PAC directly to federal candidates in the last three election cycles…Feingold’s campaign acknowledged that it bought Progressives United’s mailing list to hit up past donors of that group."
- While today marks the one year anniversary of his announcement, February 15 – the day he started Progressives United, marked the anniversary of his five year political plot to run for his old Senate seat.
On Election Day 2016, Senator Russ Feingold will learn that the erosion of one’s principles have consequences.