Thursday, May 14, 2015

APNewsBreak: Wisconsin's Feingold to run for US Senate - Yahoo News

 

Russ Feingold announced Thursday he will run to reclaim the U.S. Senate seat he lost five years ago to Republican Ron Johnson, fulfilling the hopes of Democrats who have been pushing for the liberal to return to political office.

 

Feingold said in a 90-second video to supporters that he will run for the seat in 2016. He likely will face the incumbent Johnson, a political newcomer when he defeated Feingold by 5 points in 2010. If successful, Feingold would be only the third senator since 1956 to reclaim a seat.

Feingold, 62, served 18 years in the Senate before losing to Johnson. He sat out the 2012 recall election against Gov. Scott Walker, the race for an open Senate seat that fall, and Walker's recall election in 2014. He will be running in a presidential year, when Democratic turnout will likely be stronger in Wisconsin than it was in the 2010 midterm when he lost.

Walker is preparing for a likely presidential run next year and is expected to announce his plans in late June or early July.

In the video announcement filmed inside his home near Madison, Feingold said his "desire to serve is stronger than ever" and that he wants to fight to "bring back to the U.S. Senate strong independence, bipartisanship and honesty."

Feingold said he intends to travel the state this summer "listening carefully to my fellow Wisconsinites talk about their concerns, especially when it comes to their economic well-being."

His entry brings Democrats immediate credibility in the race to regain control of the Senate. The GOP has a 54-44 advantage, with two independents who caucus with Democrats.

Johnson issued a statement hitting on the Republican's narrative that Feingold is a Washington insider who has lost touch with Wisconsin voters.

"While I was building a small manufacturing business and creating real jobs in Oshkosh, Russ was building Washington into the gigantic, debt-ridden, tax-eating, unresponsive, and freedom-squashing government we have today," Johnson said. "Russ Feingold wants more Washington, a more expensive Washington, and a more powerful Washington. I want to empower people. This campaign will give the people of Wisconsin a real choice."

Feingold's signature legislation during 18 years in the Senate was his co-sponsorship with Republican Sen. John McCain of a campaign finance overhaul. The measure, which came to be known as McCain-Feingold, attempted to limit the influence of special interest money by banning soft money — unregulated donations by corporations, unions and the wealthy.

Another key part of that law banning union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010.

 

The liberal Feingold had a record of breaking with the Democratic Party during his years in the Senate. He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, which was enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to give law enforcement officials greater authority to tap phones and investigate suspected terrorists. He also opposed President Barack Obama's decision to expand the war in Afghanistan and was the first senator to propose a timetable to exit Iraq.

Feingold was a state senator for 10 years before being elected to the Senate for the first time in 1992.

After his defeat while seeking a fourth term, Feingold wrote a book and taught at the Marquette University Law School, Lawrence University and Stanford University. He formed Progressives United, a political action committee, in 2011, and in 2013 he was appointed as an envoy to Great Lakes region of Africa, a position he left in March.

Johnson's victory over Feingold came in his first run for office. The chief executive of a plastics manufacturer in Oshkosh, Johnson emerged as a speaker at tea party rallies in 2010 and spent more than $8 million on the race to defeat Feingold. He has said he will not self-finance his re-election effort.

Johnson ran as an opponent of the federal stimulus plan. In the Senate, he's been outspoken against President Obama's health care law, even filing a lawsuit challenging the requirement that lawmakers and their staff obtain health insurance through the exchanges.

Johnson was among 47 Republican senators who signed a letter to Iranian leaders in March raising doubts about Obama's nuclear negotiations. Johnson defended the letter, but also said he regretted that it wasn't sent as an open letter addressed to no one rather than to Iranian leaders.

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Online: http://www.russfeingold.com/

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APNewsBreak: Wisconsin's Feingold to run for US Senate - Yahoo News

Rauner sticks to his pension approach despite questions about its legality - Chicago Tribune

 

That position was relayed as the Republican governor dispatched a lawyer and policy adviser to a House committee to discuss the approach on pensions months after Rauner floated it. While no legislation has been filed, the new governor has talked broadly about moving all current workers to a less generous benefit package beginning in July. Upon retirement, those workers would collect two pensions — one from the more generous plan in place now, and a second from the less generous benefits accrued after July.

Skeptical lawmakers noted that the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that an earlier attempt to slash pension benefits for workers and retirees violated a clause in the Illinois Constitution that says such benefits cannot be "diminished or impaired."

In the unanimous ruling, justices also made clear that pension benefits promised to a public worker on the first day of employment cannot be reduced later. That distinction appeared to blow a hole in Rauner's plan.

But Wednesday, Rauner administration attorney Kim Fowler said the governor was not deterred.

"We continue to believe that the governor's proposal … is constitutional under the current constitution even after the Supreme Court's ruling that came out Friday," Fowler said.

The Rauner team's view is that the court was unclear about whether future benefits have the same protections as those benefits already earned. "We don't think the court clearly answered what benefits are protected," Fowler said.

Rauner sticks to his pension approach despite questions about its legality - Chicago Tribune

CTA looks to bridge $28M Rauner budget gap | abc7chicago.com

 

(WLS) --

The CTA is looking for ways to bridge a budget gap - one that board members fear will be at least $28 million in state funding cuts.
"Based on what Gov. Rauner has done, the full $28 million will disappear," said outgoing CTA President Forrest Claypool.

Claypool says that money represents the reduced and free-ride subsidy the governor wants to end.
At Wednesday's board meeting, the agency discussed contingency plans to try and absorb the expected cuts without having to raise fares.

CTA looks to bridge $28M Rauner budget gap | abc7chicago.com