Vulnerable Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is —
as usual — in hot water.
This time, he’s under serious scrutiny after a potential ethics violation for using blog posts on his official Senate website to launch partisan, campaign-related attacks on Russ Feingold, his 2016 challenger.
The Senate Ethics Manual, according to the Huffington Post, “says senators and staff members cannot use Senate Internet ‘for personal, promotional, commercial, or partisan political purposes.'”
The ever-unflappable Johnson isn’t worried about the ethics complaint, though. At a recent town hall, he dismissed the complaint as not “a big deal at all,” according to the Huffington Post, and went on to say: “I get PolitiFacted all the time, so we were just responding to that. And you know, because now we’re in campaign season, and the one fact-check was something Sen. Feingold had said, we responded to that.”
In other words, Johnson’s more or less leaning in to his decision to launch campaign attacks from his tax payer-funded website.
Here’s what outlets are saying about RoJo’s Senate ethics no-no:
Huffington Post: GOP Senator On Potential Ethics Violation: ‘I Don’t Think It’s A Big Deal’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) last week shrugged off questions surrounding the removal of blog posts from his official Senate website that may have violated Senate ethics rules.
The American Democracy Legal Fund filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee last Monday about one of three posts recently deleted from Johnson’s site. The complaint alleged that the post breached ethics rules because it directly responded to a PolitiFact Wisconsin fact-check article about former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, who is running to become Johnson’s Democratic opponent in 2016.
Johnson was asked about the deleted posts at a town hall meeting last Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s a big deal at all,” he said, according to a video that was posted to YouTube by Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge.
“We were responding to the reporter that had put the fact-check on my discussion on student loans,” Johnson says in the video. “So we were just like, we’ve done it repeatedly. I get PolitiFacted all the time, so we were just responding to that. And you know, because now we’re in campaign season, and the one fact-check was something Sen. Feingold had said, we responded to that.”
Huffington Post: GOP Senator Quietly Removes Blog Posts That May Have Violated Ethics Rules
Blog posts on Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) official Senate website, including one that a watchdog group complains violated ethics rules, have mysteriously been taken down.
The American Democracy Legal Fund, a Democratic watchdog group, filed a complaint on Monday with the Senate Ethics Committee, alleging that Johnson violated the Senate Ethics Manual’s Internet policy, which says senators and staff members cannot use Senate Internet “for personal, promotional, commercial, or partisan political purposes.”
The Hill: Outside group files complaint against GOP senator
The American Democracy Legal Fund has filed a complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), accusing him of violating the Senate’s Internet policy.
The group says an article posted on the senator’s website — and subsequently removed — was a “partisan political attack” against former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who is challenging Johnson for his Senate seat.
…
Johnson is one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection next year.
Blue Nation Review: GOP Senator Used Taxpayer-Funded Website for Partisan Hit
It shouldn’t be hard for sitting senators to follow the rules about keeping partisan hit jobs off their taxpayer-funded official Senate websites. After all, it’s not like they don’t have other outlets: social media accounts, campaign websites, or just calling up a reporter and making a statement.
But there’s something irresistible about putting the official stamp of the United States Senate over your political communications, and Ron Johnson just couldn’t resist the temptation.
The Wisconsin Republican is facing a tough rematch in 2016 against Russ Feingold, whom Johnson ousted in 2010. So you’d expect barbs to fly back and forth over the coming months. But now Johnson faces an ethics complaint for posting an article on his official Senate site calling Feingold “a kindred spirit” to a Wisconsin media fact-checking operation that criticized Johnson.
Published: Aug 11, 2015
