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Feingold Promises To Make Environment A Central Issue Of Campaign

U.S. Senate Candidate Says People Care A Lot About Water Pollution, Climate Change

By
Chuck Quirmbach/WPR

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold said environment problems are a central concern of his campaign against Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

Feingold spoke on Sunday to more than 100 members of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters at a picnic shelter at Grant Park in South Milwaukee, just a couple hundred yards from Lake Michigan.

Feingold told the crowd that many people have come up to him during his tours of the state and expressed worries about water pollution.

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“Check the anxiety that people have in Kewaunee County, up the shore here,” said Feingold, referring to tests showing contamination in many of the county’s wells.

Feingold also mentioned concerns about a large hog farm proposed near Lake Superior, and problems with blue-green algae in some inland lakes in the state.

Feingold said Johnson “seems to be completely unaware of the problem.” Feingold also blasted Johnson’s opposition to calls for action to slow climate change.

Summing up, Feingold said environmental protection will be a central part of his campaign.

“We’re Wisconsin! We’re going to make it central! We’re going to make sure that everybody knows that we stand up for the great environment of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Joining Feingold at the event were Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters executive director Kerry Schumann and League of Conservation Voters Action Fund President Gene Karpinski, whose national group has been running TV ads criticizing Johnson. Karpinski declined to discuss specifics of additional involvement in the Wisconsin Senate race, but said the Fund is “all in.”

Johnson’s campaign calls the League of Conservation Voters a liberal group that doesn’t disclose its donors.