WASHINGTON – A national conservative group is planning to inject at least $2.5 million into the Wisconsin Senate race to help Republican Sen. Ron Johnson defeat Democratic challenger Russ Feingold in 2016.
Club for Growth and its affiliated political action committees are hoping to funnel at least $1.5 million worth of contributions directly to Johnson’s campaign and plan to spend “north of $1 million” on statewide advertisements either supporting his candidacy or, more likely, attacking Feingold.
That’s five times what the anti-tax Club for Growth groups spent in 2010 when Feingold lost the seat to Johnson. That year, they raised only $268,000 for Johnson’s campaign and spent $166,000 on the race.
“My goal would be to run several statewide messages, which I think effectively means you’ve got to be north of $1 million on the independent expenditures,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh said Monday.
He said the group’s independent expenditure committee, Club for Growth Action, likely will launch the first ad campaign later this year. The goal, he said, will be to remind Wisconsin voters “what it was they didn’t like six years ago.”
“I think it’s essentially that he’s kind of yesterday’s political figure, and then second, part of that is he’s too far to the left for Wisconsin,” said McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana. “It’s a blue state -- center left -- but he was very far left on his voting record.”
The multimillion-dollar pledge helps reaffirm what many already assumed: The Johnson-Feingold race will be one of the most closely watched and hotly contested in the nation.
Feingold’s campaign manager, Tom Russell, said it is “unfortunate, but not surprising” that the Club for Growth is “planning a million-dollar attack ad campaign.” Russell lashed out at Johnson for not agreeing to try and keep outside money out of the race.
Johnson campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger noted that Feingold’s campaign has already benefited from liberal groups, including American Bridge and NARAL Pro-Choice America, both of which have run ads in Wisconsin targeting Johnson.
"Senator Feingold’s hypocrisy knows no bounds,” Reisinger said.
The Club for Growth, which helped start the Wisconsin Club for Growth but is now independent from the state group, selected Johnson’s race as one of four Senate contests in which the group plans to get involved. The others are in Pennsylvania, where Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is seeking re-election, and races for open seats in Indiana and Florida.
With Johnson’s campaign, McIntosh said he believes the investments will help cut into Feingold’s lead in the polls. The most recent survey, by the Marquette University Law School in April, had Feingold leading Johnson by 16 percentage points among registered voters, 54-38.
McIntosh said the independent advertising buys will target the roughly 10 percent of voters in the middle who haven’t decided and try to swing them toward Johnson.
“He’s a little behind right now, but I think that can let him win,” McIntosh said.
So far, Johnson has a slight fundraising edge on Feingold. Johnson reported raising $3.3 million this year and had $2.8 million as of June 30. Feingold raised $2.3 million and had $2 million cash.
- Publish my comments...
- 0 Comments