GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who is in a contentious race to retain his seat against former Sen. Russ Feingold, attacked him for raising 69.5 percent of his campaign funds out-of-state, despite promising to raise the majority within Wisconsin.
The 30-second Tuesday statewide TV and digital spot, titled “Busted,” noted Feingold failed to make good on his 1992 pledge to “rely on Wisconsin citizens, not out of staters, to pay for this campaign.”
Despite the promise, the vast majority of funds appear to have come from outside the Badger State, with just 30.5 percent of contributions coming from donors through the second quarter of the 2016 election cycle, the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
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“Sen. Feingold is hypocritically saying one thing and doing another by making a pledge ‘for the future,’ but then breaking his word as soon as he thinks it will get him back to Washington,” Johnson campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger said in a statement.
The Johnson camp alleged Feingold, who was unseated by Johnson in 2010, has a history of lying when it comes to fundraising.
In 2011, Feingold’s PAC, Progressives United, raised $130,000 over the course of a week through an email campaign, telling donors their money would be used toward the party’s recall effort — yet none of that went toward the cause promoted. Instead, just $2,500 went to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin during the 2012 cycle, while Feingold took in $7,500 over the summer of 2011, according to Federal Election Committee reports.
“Sen. Feingold exhibits no shame saying one thing and doing another – even when it means lying to his own supporters. He failed to use their donations for progressive causes he promised to support, and instead pocketed the money to spend on himself,” Reisigner told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Sen. Feingold’s scandals should cause Wisconsin voters to reject his Washington ways as a 34-year career politician.”
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