Best Advice Ron Johnson Can Give Iowa Senate Candidate: Marry Rich, Have Company Pay for Campaign

#OurDumbSenator Will Likely Avoid Discussion of Scandalous Payment to Finance His 2010 Senate Run

MADISON, Wis. — As U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) travels to Iowa this week in conjunction with the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity to attack the Democratic Senate candidate in the race, he will likely avoid discussion of the scandalous way in which he spent $9 million to finance his race, only to be given a $10 million payoff shortly after the campaign by the company he started with the help of his multi-millionaire father in law.

“Sadly, it seems like the best advice Sen. Ron Johnson can give his Republican friends is: marry rich and have you company pay for the campaign,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Ron Johnson has distinguished himself for two things: the sleazy way in which he won his office, and how little he has done once there to help hard-working, middle class families.”

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which reported the payoff in an article in June 2011:

After dropping nearly $9 million from his own pocket to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson didn’t have to feel the pain for very long.

Johnson’s plastics company paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly before he was sworn in as Wisconsin’s junior senator, according to his latest financial disclosure report.

The first-term Republican declined to say how his Oshkosh firm, Pacur, came up with a figure that so closely mirrored the amount he personally put into his campaign fund.

The full story, including outrage from campaign finance watchdogs, is available here.

PACUR was founded in 1977 by Johnson’s father-in-law, Pat Curler, two years before Johnson and his wife moved to Wisconsin. Johnson was assigned to the company at age 24 under the supervision of his brother in law. For years, PACUR’s only customer was another Curler other company.

More information about Ron Johnson’s record of inaction and inflammatory statements can be found at www.OurDumbSenator.com.

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