Feingold, Johnson trade fire ahead of first debate

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D) are trading opening shots ahead of their first debate face-off in an increasingly close rematch election. 

 

The two will meet on the debate stage Friday.

 

Democrats are homing in on $10 million in compensation that Johnson received from his former plastics company, PACUR. 

{mosads}The Wisconsin Democrat’s campaign released an ad — titled “Reasonable” — on Thursday, arguing the GOP senator took a “corporate payout” shortly before joining the Senate.

 

“Ron Johnson paid himself $700,000 a year. All told he took a $10 million corporate payout — and then moved to Washington,” the ad’s narrator says. 

 

Democrats have hit Johnson over the $10 million payout for months, including filing a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee requesting an investigation into whether Johnson violated federal law. 

Johnson has repeatedly defended the payment, arguing it was deferred compensation after he didn’t take a salary while running PACUR. The payment was also reported as part of a Senate financial disclosure form filed in 2011. 

William Allison, a spokesman for Johnson’s campaign, told PolitiFact earlier this year that the payment was reviewed as part of an IRS audit and that the IRS “took no issue with it.” 

PolitiFact also rated a Feingold ad from earlier this year that called the money a “sweetheart corporate payout” as “half true” because “there’s no evidence to show this payment was unusual or out of line.”

The ad also knocks Johnson for fighting “against even the existence of any federal minimum wage.” 

Democrats have focused on Johnson’s comments from a 2014 event, during which he said he doesn’t believe there should be a federal minimum wage except for guest workers. 

A PolitiFact check on the Democratic attack rated it “mostly true,” though Johnson’s campaign noted he isn’t actively trying to get rid of the minimum wage. 

Johnson’s campaign fired back, knocking Feingold over the Affordable Care Act, which the former Democratic senator backed in 2010, in an ad released Thursday, 

The ad includes video of Feingold saying in 2015 that ObamaCare is “by no means as bad as some people pretend it was” and a Wisconsin woman who says her family has been negatively impacted by the law.

Feingold also said in his 2015 interview that he wanted to make the law better, which was not included Johnson’s TV ad. 

It’s the third ad Johnson has released on the healthcare law since President Bill Clinton called ObamaCare the “craziest thing in the world” last week.

The former president tried to walk back his comments, but Republicans have raced to question if Senate Democratic hopefuls agree with his remarks. 

Wisconsin is one of eight states likely to determine the battle for the Senate that is expected to see reductions in the number of insurers participating in the ObamaCare marketplace.  

The back-and-forth comes as a handful of recent polls have shown the race tightening. Feingold currently leads by 3 points in the polls, according to the RealClearPolitics average. That’s down from an average of nearly 8 points just earlier this week. 

Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats in November, including a handful in states previously carried by President Obama. Democrats need to net five seats — or four if they also retain the White House — to reclaim the majority.