Two environmental groups are teaming up for a $1 million advertising campaign to oppose Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) reelection.
The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund and the Environmental Defense Action Fund are running the ads to paint Johnson a climate change doubter and oil industry ally, and to frame Democrat Russ Feingold as the environment-friendly alternative.
{mosads}“NASA, the Department of Defense and 97 percent of scientists agree: Climate change is real,” a narrator in the television ad from League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund says.
It then shows a video of Johnson saying he “absolutely” doesn’t believe “the science of man-caused climate change is proven,” says he’s received $300,000 in campaign contributions from the oil industry, and labels him “Ron Johnson for Big Oil.”
The digital ad, which both groups are funding, says the billionaire conservative brothers David and Charles Koch are “spending millions supporting Johnson.”
Feingold, meanwhile, would “stand up to the Koch brothers and big oil polluters,” by ending oil’s tax incentives and pushing for more clean energy.
Johnson’s campaign slammed the green groups and Feingold.
“While ISIS is slaughtering innocents and threatening people every day, Sen. Feingold and his far-left dark money groups from Washington are spending millions of dollars attacking business,” said Brian Resigner, Johnson’s spokesman.
“It just shows how out of touch and hypocritical Sen. Feingold has become after 34 years in politics.”
The Wisconsin race is consistently rated one of the most likely to flip parties, and environmental activists are investing heavily in it.
A Marquette Law School poll earlier this month found Feingold with 49 percent support and Johnson with 44 percent among likely voters.