Dems accuse Johnson of ‘shady campaign finance scheme’

National Democrats will launch a five-figure digital ad campaign on Wednesday accusing Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) of a “shady campaign finance scheme” related to his first self-funded run for office in 2010.

{mosads}The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will push ads on Facebook and Twitter showing Johnson swimming in an ocean of cash and accusing him of a “$10 million FEC violation.”

“Wisconsin voters deserve to know the truth about Ron Johnson’s shady $10 million deal,” the ad states.

Johnson, an independently wealthy business executive, self-funded his 2010 campaign with about $9 million of his own money. In 2011, Johnson’s company paid him $10 million in a deferred compensation arrangement that Democrats are calling a reimbursement scheme meant to skirt campaign finance laws.

“It’s far past time for Ron Johnson to finally come clean about his shady campaign finance scheme and the DSCC will continue holding him accountable and demanding answers from the embattled Senator,” DSCC spokesperson Sadie Weiner said in a statement. “Wisconsinites deserve to know the truth about Johnson’s shadowy campaign finance history, and these ads are just the beginning of our efforts to make sure voters know what Johnson was up to when he thought no one was looking.”

Johnson, who served as CEO of the plastics company PACUR LLC from 1997 to 2010, says that he did not receive a salary over that time period and that the $10 million payment complied with federal disclosure laws.

Brian Reisinger, a spokesperson for the Johnson campaign, shot back, calling Feingold a “professional politician” and hitting him for violating his own campaign finance principles.

“The professional politician who once told the DSCC to ‘get the hell out’ of Wisconsin is now accepting its help, adding to the long list of things where Senator Feingold has said one thing and done another,” Reisinger said in a statement. “The DSCC and Senator Feingold are clearly concerned that Wisconsinites are starting to realize that Senator Feingold has devolved into just another professional politician who has violated his principles for his own political ambition — and they should be.”

National Republicans have similarly made campaign finance issues a focus in attacking Feingold, accusing the campaign finance reform advocate of being a hypocrite for breaking a past pledge to raise a majority of his money from inside Wisconsin. They have also accused Feingold of using a super-PAC meant to boost Democratic candidates as a “slush fund” that benefits only himself and his allies.

Johnson is among the most vulnerable senators up for reelection in 2016.

In 2010, he defeated former Sen. Russ Feingold (D) in a wave election year for Republicans. He faces a much more difficult climate heading into 2016, however, running in a battleground state during a presidential election year.

Wisconsin hasn’t gone for a Republican presidential candidate since backing former President Reagan for reelection in 1984.

Feingold is seeking a rematch from 2010, and a Marquette University survey from August showed him with a 5-point lead over Johnson.