Correction 12:23 CST: An eager reader tweets me the link to Heartland Values PAC’s FEC report for last year. It shows two $5K contributions to Ron Johnson on January 24, 2015. Last year, Heartland Values PAC gave $95K last year to ten Republicans and the National Republican Senate Committee, but none to Russ Feingold or any other Democrat. I regret the error and will notify OpenSecrets.org. Aside from the incorrect statement that Thune is backing Feingold, everything else in the original post below appears to be correct; I thus preserve the text and links below for reference.
—–original erroneous post—–
Here’s a quick morning puzzler: Why is Senator John Thune’s PAC supporting Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold?
Heartland Values PAC exists to promote “common sense conservative values.” (Note to readers: please find me an example of any candidate or organization who makes an argument for uncommon sense.) Since ascending to the Senate and forming this PAC, Thune has made sure it sends money exclusively to Republicans. (He gave $10,000 to his own party’s big loser Bruce Whalen in 2006.)
But OpenSecrets.org says Heartland Values PAC has given Russ Feingold $10,000 in the 2016 election cycle. Democrat Feingold is running to take back his old Senate seat from Republican Ron Johnson. He has endorsements from Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin National Organization for Women, and two big Wisconsin teachers’ organizations. He’s hesitating to talk about his past support for single-payer, but is Feingold really tacking right enough to warrant a conservative PAC donation against a conservative?
Thune’s PAC did give Ron Johnson $5,000 in 2010. Senator Johnson gets a higher Tea Party score from Conservative Review than Senator Thune (Johnson 60%, Thune 48%).
* * *
In other PAC news, Thune is putting his money where his mouth isn’t quite. While Thune resists explicitly endorsing Marco Rubio, Heartland Values PAC has given Rubio $10,000 this cycle. Rubio is the only Presidential candidate receiving Thune’s PAC money.
Highly unusual. What don’t we know about Ron Johnson that will come out as election day gets closer?
The press release blog is going to crap itself over this, which means it will pretend nothing happened and hope nobody notices.
Ron Johnson is in a mess with a 38% approval rating. Feingold is already holding a solid and growing double digit lead. Independent voters favor Feingold as well.
Perhaps Thune pulled a Rubio (come on Marco….Vancouver is not America) and just sent the check to the wrong candidate.
For those watching the national Democrat races Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania are all states that should see Democratic victories. With a five seat Republican advantage right now we are realistically going to see a flip in Senate majority coming out of this next election with so many Republican incumbents up for re-election.
Johnson is just about gone, like Madman says, so it really doesn’t matter. Still, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Thune to give money to Feingold, other than to fulfill the PAC’s promise to give to “honest” candidates. Was this a slap at the Tea Party idiocy that Johnson upholds? Johnson is kind of Wisconsin’s Trump, a rich guy with a big mouth who self-funded his last campaign.
If you want to be a leader in the Senate and be seen as being able to work across party lines, then you give to the one that will win. They have both been in the Senate together before so may have worked together on a few things and he knows who can help when they need a few dem votes. Politics has strange bed fellows but if you see a way to get the politics done, he did it.
This is quite perplexing….they (Feingold and Thune) did work together *some* during Feingold’s first stint in the Senate, but enough to support the challenger for a sitting Republican incumbent….?
In terms of the Rubio donation, it might be that Rubio is his preference…and/or it might be a show of solidarity from a senator to the only Republican senator running that anyone likes.
Let us not count chickens,yet. Never underestimate the deviousness of desperate and cornered rats. There are still many ways and days left to discourage and delete Democrat votes and voters.
For Wisconsin’s sake I hope they flush Walker with Johnson.
Different sites claim Marlboro Barbie has over 10 million in his election fund.
Open Secrets reporting this incorrectly makes more sense than Thune donating to Feingold. If Thune really had donated to Feingold the GOP party senate caucus would find a different cardboard cutout to put behind McConnell during press conferences, and Sen. Thune would lose the royalties generated by the use of his likeness.
Thune also supports Clinton. It seems that neo-liberals stick together like peas and carrots. Where do you think his eleven million came from?
http://northernbeacon.blogspot.com/2016/02/south-dakots-robots-and-marco-rubio.html
Professor Newquist absolutely drops the hammer on Dakota’s wingnut congressional bench warmers. Must be unionized. They get paid the same as Dems,but don’t do a damn thing to earn it.
Thune supports rubio implicitly because his pac gave rubio $10 grand? Correct?
In the beautiful People Dept Rubio Will Be A Great Threat By Younger Repub Voters. They Vote Like The Grammys I Fear
.hillary has Got To Get The Votes. Bernie’s fine But Both Are Old. We Live In A Shallow Culture Or Society.
But It Looks Like We Shall Have The Senate, 5 progressive Scotus Votes And A Female Prezident. The World Will Be Saved Unless Gullible Young Voters Allow Themselves To Get Snookered By Republican Disinformation.