Surprising no one, Russ Feingold has announced that he’s running for the U.S. Senate seat he lost to Ron Johnson in the Republican sweep of 2010.
I think he’s definitely not the underdog in 2016.
Feingold has triumphed in close elections, but the 2010 election was something else entirely. The country had gone crazy. You may not want to remember, but it was the first major election after the cratering of the economy, election of the first African American president, and launch of bailouts and stimulus packages that didn’t sit well with a large slice of the American public.
Long story short: It was the first tea party election.
Johnson was self-financed (or should I say he was financed by his company) and boosted by the wholehearted support of conservative talk radio, who I’m sure was getting rewarded handsomely for their support.
Feingold, meanwhile, was facing an uphill battle. The issues worked against him. The champion of civil liberties was facing re-election in an atmosphere of paranoia and fear. A guy who was more interested in foreign policy was being asked questions about what he’d do for small business owners. Not exactly his brand.
So Feingold lost and everything that I’ve heard indicated that he was happy in private life. Then he served as an envoy in East Africa, no easy task.
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Feingold’s facing a much different election in 2016. First off, it’s a presidential year. I’m pretty sure that whoever is topping the ticket on the Democratic side is going to take Wisconsin. That obviously helps Feingold.
Secondly, there’s Johnson himself, if he decides to run for re-election. He's a very weak candidate, especially in what will likely be a Democratic year. Few Wisconsinites actually know who he is and he’s mostly distinguished himself by revealing his stupidity and arrogance. There’s a strong sense of buyers’ remorse out there. Believe me.
The country has moved on since 2010 for many reasons that will benefit Feingold. I can’t wait to see him go up against Johnson and flip this seat.
Image by Tom Barrett via Flickr and a CC license
