Once again, bloggers do what the LeftStream Media won’t. This time, it’s Jessica that takes a look at Russ Feingold’s (there is a reason why I am not using my slang name of el-Slimeroad, even though he richly deserves it) campaign finances the last few years. The highlights:
– Feingold spent a state-record $11.2 million ($1.5 million in out-of-state funds) to get re-election (Tim Michels, the RPW-abandoned opponent, spent $5.5 million with $0.3 million from outside Wisconsin). BTW, that was the 10th-most-expensive Senate race in the country.
– Amount raised by Feingold between 1992 (when he first ran and won his Senate seat) and 2002 (when the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Lieberal Protection Act passed): $7 million. Amount raised since 2002: $11 million.
I’ll throw a couple of mostly-remembered tidbits from the 1998 campaign against Mark Neumann (the RPW-abandoned candidate that year). First, there was a coordinated special-interest sliming of Neumann shortly after the primaries that Feingold piously denied having any part of (in fact, he claimed he was taking the “high road”, hence my calling him Slimeroad), with at least one Milwaukee TV station (IIRC, it was WISN) airing those commercials for several days after Feingold asked they be pulled. One little problem; those ads would have run afoul of McCain-Feingold had it been law at that point, and Feingold was pushing for his Lieberal Protection Act back then.
Second, there was this little matter of late reporting of some last-minute out-of-state cash so el-Slimeroad didn’t have to worry about breaking his pledge to limit out-of-state cash. Never mind that the influx ended up only putting him at the cusp of breaking that pledge; because the Clintonistas ran the US Attorneys offices (it would have been a federal case if pursued), he only had to worry about the bad press from the appearance of breaking that pledge.
