Russell Feingold
Table of contents
Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Getty ImagesCurrent Position: U.S. Senator (since January 1993)
Why He Matters
At a Glance
Current Position: U.S. Senator (since 1992)
Career History: State Senator (1984 to 1992); Attorney (1979 to 1985)
Birthday: March 2, 1953
Hometown: Janesville, Wis.
Alma Mater: University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A., 1975; Harvard Law School; J.D., 1979
Spouse: Divorced
Religion: Jewish
DC Office: 506 Hart Senate Office Building; 202-224-5323State Offices: Middleton, 608-828-1200; Milwaukee, 414-276-7282; La Crosse, 608-782-5585; Green Bay, 920-465-7508 Wausau, 715-848-5660
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Feingold is best known for the campaign finance reform bill that he worked on with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The McCain-Feingold bill, as it is usually called, was signed into law in 2002 and has faced legal challenges since.
Feingold flirted with the idea of running for president in both 2004 and 2008.
Path to Power
Feingold was born to Leon and Sylvia Feingold on March 2, 1953, in Janesville, Wis., where the Jewish family had lived for generations.He was always an exceptional student. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned his B.A. with honors in 1975, Feingold was Phi Beta Kappa. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his law degree, again with honors, at Harvard Law School in 1979. Sen. Russell Feingold’s Web site
Feingold was a practicing attorney from 1979 to 1985 in Madison, Wis. In 1982 he ran for his first elected office: representing Wisconsin’s 27th district in the state senate. The 29-year-old Feingold defeated an 83-year-old state senate veteran by just 31 votes. He was reelected in 1986 and 1990. In 1992, Feingold ran for the U.S. Senate. The three-person primary was expected to be close, but the other contenders damaged each other with negative ads and Feingold distanced himself with zany commercials including one in which Elvis endorsed him. He won the primary with 70 percent of the vote.
In the general election, Feingold faced a two-term incumbent, Republican Bob Kasten. Feingold beat Kasten, who had won his two terms by small margin, 53 to 46 percent. Feingold was re-elected in 1998 after a tough race against Rep. Mark Neumann in which both men agreed to spending limits. Feingold spent $3.8 million to Neumann’s $4.4 million, but won 51 to 48 percent. Feingold decided not to keep in his pledge not to run for reelection in 2004. He raised $9 million and defeated a former Army Ranger 55 to 44 percent. Feingold’s current term expires in 2010. Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
In the Senate, Feingold sits on the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Budget, and Intelligence Committees. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and the Foreign Relations Committee’s African Affairs Subcommittee. He prides himself on staying connected to Wisconsin constituents by holding listening sessions in each of the state’s 72 counties every year.
Feingold is divorced and has two daughters. He lives in Middleton, Wis.
The Issues
Feingold voted with the majority of Democrats 88.9 percent of the time in the just concluded 110th Congress.Washington Post Votes Database He is considered an independent voter who is liberal on cultural issues and foreign policy but more moderate when it comes to the economy. Usually reliably progressive, Feingold occasionally sides with Republicans. For example, he supports same sex marriage, universal health care, and ending the death penalty, but was the only Democrat to vote against a motion to dismiss charges against President Bill Clinton in 1997 and was one of just eight Democrats who voted to confirm John Ashcroft as President George W. Bush’s attorney general.Candidate Biography, FOX News Web site
The Economy
In October 2008, Feingold voted against the $700 billion bailout package that passed the Senate 74-25. “[The bill] fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression,” Feingold said in a statement at the time."Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold on Opposing the Bailout," Sen. Russ Feingold’s Web site, Oct. 1, 2008He did, however, support an auto industry bailout, saying that if Congress was going to give money to Wall Street, it should also help regular Americans keep their jobs.Marrero, Diana, “Wisconsin’s lawmakers wary of auto bailout,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 22, 2008
Feingold describes himself as a budget-hawk and has drawn ire from both parties for advocating such measures as ending automatic cost of living allowances for Congressmen and instituting “pay as you go” rules that would require the government to match spending increases with tax increases.
Campaign Finance Reform
Feingold, known for his economic pragmatism, was approached by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 1995 about working on campaign finance reform. Feingold jumped at the chance. The resulting Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act had a few primary goals: to ban “soft money” donations to political parties from corporations and unions, to impose limits on the money non-profit organizations can spend on advertising 60 days before an election, and to limit the amount political parties can spend to promote their candidates. The act, which came to be known as the McCain-Feingold bill, did not survive a filibuster in 1996 and again in early 1998. Later in 1998, the House passed one version but it was filibustered again in the Senate. It gained momentum in the aftermath of the Enron collapse, and the bill was passed in March 2002. President George W. Bush signed it into law that same month, despite expressing concerns about the constitutionality of some portions.Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act has faced a number of legal challenges since it was signed into law. Most notably, then-Senate majority whip (now Senate minority leader) Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) challenged the law in McConnell v. FEC, a Dec. 2003 Supreme Court case in which the high court upheld most of the McCain-Feingold bill by a vote of 5 to 4.The Oyez Project, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003)
In 2006 and 2007, Feingold worked with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to further ethics reform, including limits on gifts from lobbyists.
The Iraq War and its Aftermath
Feingold earned the distinction of being the only Senator to vote against the USA Patriot Act in 200, though perhaps it is not surprising that the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution is an ardent civil rights defender.
A year later, Feingold voted against the 2002 Iraq war resolution. He has been critical of the handling of the war ever since. Feingold was the first senator to call for setting a timetable to remove troops from Iraq.
He is expected to urge President Obama to roll back some of the "War on Terror" measures implemented in the Bush administration, such as domestic wiretapping and treatment of detainees some consider inappropriate and immoral.Cohen, Adam, “Democratic Pressure on Obama to Restore the Rule of Law,” New York Times, Nov. 14, 2008
The Network
Feingold told reporters that both Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would make good presidents, but did not endorse the Illinois Democrat until Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. Feingold did admit in February 2008, however, that he had voted for Obama in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary. He said he would support either Democrat over his campaign finance reform ally McCain , a “good man” who “would not lead the country in the right direction.” Nichols, John, “Feingold’s Vote,” The Nation, Feb. 22, 2008Feingold’s bipartisan partnership with Sen. John McCain is well established. The two worked together on several incarnations of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which came to be known as the McCain-Feingold bill, between 1995 and when it passed in 2002. He also relied on his campaign finance reform co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), who lost his bid for reelection in 2008, and Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), who retired from politics in 2007. Meehan is currently the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts – Lowell.
He has also works with Wisconsin’s senior senator, Democrat Herb Kohl (D).
Footnotes
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