Sen. Russ Feingold battles ‘tea party’ challenger in Wisconsin

Reporting from Milwaukee —  While the “tea party” candidacies of Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky have garnered nationwide attention, the sheer bolt-from-the-blue power of the movement might be felt nowhere more strongly at this moment than in Wisconsin.

Here, three-term Democratic Sen. Russell D. Feingold is suddenly battling for his political life against tea party-backed businessman Ron Johnson. Feingold’s vulnerability has shocked Democrats and invigorated the GOP, which has new hope for regaining control of the Senate.

Some polls show Feingold down by double digits to Johnson, a political neophyte and plastics industrialist who has hammered him over the healthcare overhaul and increased federal spending, popular tea party themes.

The two held their first debate here Friday evening.

Feingold has been in the Senate for “18 years, and he’s had his head in the sand on a lot of these issues,” Johnson said Friday. “He’s been in politics all his life. He’s never created a job. I have.”

In turn, Feingold blasted Johnson as a millionaire with a “country-club view of reality.” And he made his own overture to Wisconsin tea party voters, calling the Patriot Act an invasion of personal freedom for giving the government expanded surveillance powers to combat terrorism.

Early tea party successes have been understandable in mostly rural, conservative states such as Nevada, Kentucky and Alaska. But Johnson’s momentum, along with the viable campaign being run by Senate candidate Ken Buck against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado, shows that the movement has some ability to step toward the mainstream.

Wisconsin hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984 — and Barack Obama pounded John McCain here two years ago, capturing 56% of the vote.

While making a pitch to independent voters, Johnson has embraced his tea party roots. “Their issues are my issues,” he said after Friday’s debate.

Along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is locked in a tight race with Angle, Feingold, 57, looms as one of the tea party’s highest-profile potential victims.

An outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Feingold is in trouble despite his reputation as a bipartisan consensus-seeker who has dedicated much of his career to taking on special interests. Friday, he called himself the “No. 1 enemy of lobbyists” in Washington.

Feingold, along with McCain, was the architect of a sweeping campaign finance bill that sought to regulate the amount of outside money that can be spent on congressional campaigns. Those efforts earned Feingold a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award.

Because of that work, he has turned down financial help from the Democratic Party’s campaign arm. Third-party groups supporting Johnson, such as the American Action Network, have shown no mercy, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads.

Ironically, unlike many Democrats targeted by the tea party, Feingold voted against the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

But that hasn’t prevented Johnson from criticizing Feingold for his support of the healthcare overhaul and the economic stimulus bill. Feingold, Johnson said, “wants government control over our lives. He likes higher spending.”

In a bid to galvanize his liberal base in Wisconsin, a state with a progressive tradition, Feingold has become one of the few Democrats to tout the healthcare bill. Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and labor unions have responded by making his reelection a priority. President Obama traveled to Madison, Wis., last month specifically to boost Feingold’s chances.

Feingold walked with labor supporters on a door-to-door campaign Saturday. “He has always fought against special interests and big business, which is why they’re spending tons of cash for his opponent who supports sending Wisconsin jobs overseas,” said Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO.

Feingold has seized upon the outsourcing issue, attacking Johnson’s support of free trade and his references to job losses as “creative destruction.”

But Johnson’s supporters admire his business background. “I like the idea of having someone who has worked in the private sector,” said Brandon Markham, 24, of Milwaukee, who has already cast a vote for the Republican. “And as a young person, reducing the deficit is very important to me.”

In Friday’s debate, Feingold was the aggressor, saying that Johnson was a “stealth” candidate whose views had not been widely publicized. Johnson, 55, has never run for public office and was initially widely mocked for his views on climate change, which he attributed to sunspots.

But Johnson has since surged in the polls — and Feingold owned up Friday to perhaps having lost some connection with Wisconsin voters. “People do need to be reminded of what you have done,” he said.

joliphant@latimes.com