Russell Feingold

Russell Dana Feingold ( ; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. Senate seat he had previously occupied. From 1983 to 1993, he was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.

With John McCain, Feingold received the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He and McCain cosponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain–Feingold Act), a major piece of campaign finance reform legislation. He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act during the first vote on the legislation.

Feingold was mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but in November 2006 announced he would not run. In 2010, Feingold lost his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate to Republican nominee Ron Johnson. On June 18, 2013, he was selected by Secretary of State John Kerry to replace R. Barrie Walkley as a special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa.

On May 14, 2015, Feingold announced his candidacy for his old Senate seat in 2016. He was defeated by Johnson in a rematch of their 2010 Senate race. In 2020, Feingold became president of the American Constitution Society.

Early life, education, and career

Feingold was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family. His grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Galicia. His father, Leon Feingold (1912–1980), was an attorney; his mother, Sylvia Feingold (née Binstock; 1918–2005), worked at a title company. Feingold was one of four children. Feingold's father and his older brother David, a Vietnam War conscientious objector, were the major influences on his political development as a youth. As a boy he was also involved with the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization and Aleph Zadik Aleph.

In 1972, Feingold volunteered for the presidential campaign of New York City mayor John Lindsay. He later supported the presidential campaigns of Mo Udall and Ted Kennedy.

After graduating from Joseph A. Craig High School, Feingold attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in political science. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was inducted into the Iron Shield Society, which is considered the highest honor achievable by University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate students. Feingold then went to Magdalen College at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he graduated in 1977 with a first-class honours Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence. Upon returning to the U.S., he attended Harvard Law School, receiving his J.D. with honors in 1979.

Feingold worked as an attorney at the private law firms of Foley & Lardner and La Follette & Sinykin from 1979 until 1985.

Wisconsin Senate

In 1982, Feingold was elected to the Wisconsin Senate, where he served for ten years until his election to the United States Senate. After he was elected to the United States Senate, Feingold was succeeded in the state senate by Joe Wineke.

U.S. Senate

Elections

1992

Feingold's senatorial career began in 1992 with a victory over incumbent Republican Senator Bob Kasten. Feingold had little name recognition in the state and was campaigning in a primary against Congressman Jim Moody and businessman Joe Checota, but adopted several proposals to gain the electorate's attention. He painted five promises on his garage door, calling it a contract with Wisconsin voters. Among Feingold's promises was a pledge to rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of his contributions and a pledge to hold a "listening session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year he was in office.

Feingold released an advertisement featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator endorsing his candidacy. His Republican opponent, Bob Kasten, responded to the ad with one of his own featuring another Elvis impersonator attacking Feingold's record.

During the primary campaign, Feingold unveiled an 82-point plan that aimed to eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term. The plan called for a raise in taxes and cuts in the defense budget, among other things, and was derided as "extremist" by Republicans and "too liberal" by his Democratic opponents. Feingold also announced his support for strict campaign finance reform and a national health care system and voiced his opposition to term limits and new tax cuts.

Feingold won by positioning himself as a quirky underdog who offered voters an alternative to what was seen by many as negative campaigning of opponents Jim Moody and Joe Checota. On primary day, Feingold, who had polled in the single digits during much of the campaign, won 70% of the vote. Seven weeks later, while Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ross Perot split the Wisconsin presidential vote 41%-37%-21%, Feingold beat Kasten, 53% to 46%.

1998

During his 1998 reelection campaign, Feingold was outspent by his Republican opponent, Representative Mark Neumann, and targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Feingold placed a cap on his own fundraising, pledging not to raise or spend more than $3.8 million (one dollar for every citizen of Wisconsin) during the campaign, and turning away Democratic Party soft money. He requested that several lobby groups, including the AFL–CIO and the League of Conservation Voters, refrain from airing pro-Feingold "issue ads". Some Democrats were angry at Feingold for "putting his career at risk" with these self-imposed limits. Neumann also limited himself to $3.8 million in spending, but allowed soft money to be used in his favor by outside groups. A strong showing in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison allowed Feingold to win the election by about two percentage points.

2004

In the 2004 Senate election, Feingold defeated the Republican candidate, businessman Tim Michels, by 11 percentage points (55%-44%), earning a third term. During the campaign, Feingold refrained from imposing spending caps on himself as he had in the past, and raised and spent almost $11 million. In 2004, Feingold spent nearly $3.7 million, or about 67%, more than his opponent. PolitiFact.com rated Feingold's frequent assertion that he had been outspent by opponents in every U.S. Senate election "pants on fire."

In late December 2004, Feingold was appointed to be one of four deputy whips for the Senate Democrats.

2010

Feingold was defeated for reelection on November 2, 2010, by Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson, 52% to 47%.

2016

On May 14, 2015, Feingold announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate against the incumbent, Republican Ron Johnson.

In his 2016 campaign, Feingold said he would no longer adhere to his longstanding pledge to raise the majority of his campaign funds from Wisconsin residents. Feingold said the pledge had been made on an election-to-election basis and no longer made sense. As of March 2016, Feingold had raised the most money among all U.S. Senate candidates challenging an incumbent. Nearly three-fourths of his individual contributions were from outside Wisconsin.

Groups financially supporting Feingold's election bid included Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, American Bridge 21st Century, and the National Abortion Rights Action League. In May 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Feingold and engaged in fundraising for him.

In the November 8, 2016, general election, Feingold was defeated by Johnson. Feingold received slightly less than 47%, and Johnson received slightly more than 50%, of the vote.

Committee assignments

* Committee on the Budget
* Committee on the Judiciary
** Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts
** Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chairman)
** Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
* Committee on Foreign Relations
** Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
** Subcommittee on African Affairs (Chairman)
** Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs
** Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights
* Select Committee on Intelligence

Tenure

During his time in the U.S. Senate, Feingold gained a reputation as a political maverick with an independent streak. When he broke with his own party, it was often because he was taking a more liberal or populist position than other Democrats. Throughout his congressional tenure, several ranking systems placed Feingold among the nation's most liberal or progressive senators.

During the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, Feingold was the only Democratic senator to vote against a motion to dismiss Congress's impeachment case against President Bill Clinton. Feingold ultimately voted against conviction on all charges.

Feingold opposed NAFTA and numerous other free trade agreements.

In 2001, Feingold was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act (H.R. 3162). Also in 2001, Feingold voted for the confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

On December 21, 2004, Feingold wrote an article for the website ''Salon'' about a golfing trip to Greenville, Alabama. After noting how friendly the people were, and that Wisconsin had many similar places, he expressed his sorrow that such a poverty-stricken area was "the reddest spot on the whole map" despite Republican policies that Feingold considered destructive to the well-being of the poor and middle class. Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon, both Republicans, were perturbed at Feingold's description of "check-cashing stores and abject trailer parks, and some of the hardest-used cars for sale on a very rundown lot." McLendon invited Feingold back for a more complete tour of the city, and Feingold agreed. He visited the city on March 28, 2005, making amends and increasing speculation about his presidential plans for 2008.

In May 2006, Feingold voted in favor of bill S.2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, an immigration reform bill that was designed to give most illegal immigrants a chance to become legal citizens.

Feingold co-sponsored a number of failed bills calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

In 2009, Feingold voted against confirmation of Timothy Geithner to be United States Secretary of the Treasury, citing Geithner's personal tax issues. Also in 2009, Feingold announced that he was planning to introduce a constitutional amendment that would prohibit governors from making temporary Senate appointments instead of holding special elections.

Feingold cosponsored the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, which was signed into law in October 2009.

Campaign finance reform

Feingold is perhaps best known for his work with Senator John McCain on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, better known as the McCain–Feingold Act. The legislation, which took seven years to pass, became defunct in the wake of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Wall Street reform

On May 20, 2010, Feingold was one of two Democratic senators to vote against the Dodd–Frank Wall Street reform bill, citing his belief that the measures did not go far enough. On July 15, 2010, he became the only Democratic senator to vote against the bill when it was brought up again; it passed by a 60-39 vote.

<