The break-neck speed with which Republicans have moved legislation to fundamentally change labor relations in the public sector has made the response necessarily as radical. The signs protestors brandish reflect the urgency. Few beckon for anything more than an immediate goal: "Kill the bill, "Recall Scott Walker." But from what I've noticed, there's been one conspicuous exception: Feingold for Governor!
I've seen a few, but not many posters calling for the beloved-but-defeated progressive stalwart to make a return to the Capitol, where he served as a state legislator for ten years, before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992.
The timing couldn't be better for the former senator himself. He just announced the founding of a new PAC, Progressives United, whose name is a reference to the Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision, which lifted restrictions on corporate and union spending on political campaigns.
However, it does not like as if Feingold is going to limit his advocacy to issues of campaign finance. As I referenced on Monday, I had the bizarre experience over the weekend of coming across a statement Feingold made in response to Walker's budget repair bill on his now-defunct Senate campaign website. The website had been stripped of all its campaign glitz, and contained only a simple statement of support for worker's rights and an explanation of how the bill threatened them.
Now the page where I found the statement is unavailable, and in the past few days RussFeingold.org has been redirected to the Progressives United site. However, if you click on the link to the site where I found the statement, you'll see a domain has been registered for progressivesunited.org/workersrights, meaning there will likely be discussion of unions there in the future. In fact, yesterday Feingold was pushing the cause of collective bargaining rights on Sly in the Morning.
Currently Feingold is working as a visiting professor of law at Marquette University.
Follow The Sconz on Twitter or Facebook to get regular updates on city and state politics. Please send anonymous tips, interview requests or any other comments to jcraver@isthmus.com.
