MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The nasty, personal tone of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race showed no signs of abating Tuesday, with incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson calling opponent Russ Feingold an out-of-touch elitist, hypocrite, phony and a liar.
And while he unleashed on Feingold, Johnson also encouraged Republicans discouraged by presidential nominee Donald Trump to “set that aside” and still vote in the Senate race.
Meanwhile, Feingold’s campaign manager accused Johnson of embracing a “hysterical scorched-earth strategy” because he knows he’s going to lose.
The activity comes exactly two weeks before Election Day when voters will decide whether to return the Johnson for a second term or replace him with the Democrat Feingold who held the seat for 18 years before losing to Johnson in 2010.
The rematch has taken a turn in recent days, particularly after Johnson said in a Friday interview that he didn’t respect Feingold and thought he was a phony. Johnson repeated the charge in recent days and again Tuesday during an interview on WTMJ-AM.
“He says one thing, does something completely different,” Johnson said, referring to Feingold’s actions on campaign finance, Social Security, defense funding and other issues. “I would call that hypocritical. I would call that phony. And so when I was asked if I respect Sen. Feingold, no I don’t. I don’t respect phoniness.”
Feingold campaign manager Tom Russell, in a memo to supporters, said Johnson was taking lessons from Trump. Johnson supports Trump but has not campaigned with him in Wisconsin.
“Any semblance of Wisconsin nice is gone,” Russell wrote. “In its place is a hysterical scorched-earth strategy of nasty personal attacks.”
Feingold said Monday that Johnson’s attacks show his desperation, and Russell spelled out in Tuesday’s memo why the Democrat was confident.
Russell highlighted polling that has consistently shown Feingold ahead and early voting numbers that have topped 240,000 statewide. About 30 percent of those have come from the heavily Democratic Dane and Milwaukee counties. He also noted that Feingold has received 118,000 contributions from 50,000 donors in Wisconsin, and touted the Democratic ground game that he said has contacted 3.3 million voters since May.
“All the vitriol and desperate name-calling from Senator Johnson cannot, and will not, change the fundamental math of this race - the polling, the grassroots support, and most importantly the strong Democratic turnout during Wisconsin’s early vote period that all point to a win for Russ on November 8th,” Russell said.
Johnson argued that the momentum was actually on his side.
“Wisconsinites are seeing through the lies, the distortion, the class warfare,” he said on WTMJ.
Johnson was getting help from three fellow Republican senators who were coming to Wisconsin to campaign on his behalf. And House Speaker Paul Ryan, of Janesville, said he would spend the four days before the election campaigning with Johnson and other Republicans across the state.
U.S. Sen. David Perdue, of Georgia, was to campaign with Johnson in Onalaska and Janesville on Tuesday. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham was coming on Thursday, followed by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst on Saturday.
Ryan’s campaign announced that after visiting 21 states to help other House and Senate candidates by Nov. 3, he would return to Wisconsin to assist Johnson and other Republicans here.
Ryan was to make stops in his southeastern congressional district, western Wisconsin and the Green Bay area. That is where Republican Mike Gallagher is running for Congress in an open seat against Democrat Tom Nelson, the Outagamie County executive.
Spending on television advertising in the Senate race is also picking up.
The Reform America Fund announced Tuesday it was launching a new attack ad against Feingold for supporting President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. The Wisconsin-based super PAC last month received a $1.3 million donation from billionaire Diane Hendricks, co-founder of Beloit’s ABC Supply.
The group’s spokesman Chris Martin would not disclose how much it was spending on the spot. But last week the super PAC announced a seven-figure ad blasting Feingold for voting, as a member of the Senate, for the federal stimulus plan in 2009. The super PAC also previously spent $1.2 million on a statewide ad attacking Hillary Clinton’s health.
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