Tech privacy ally
Feingold leads in Wisconsin Senate race
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[October 27, 2016]
By Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Next month's Senate election in Wisconsin could gain Silicon
Valley a key ally in Washington in the high-tech industry's battle
against the U.S. government's growing appetite for more access to
private data.
Democrat Russ Feingold, 63, the only lawmaker to vote against the USA
Patriot Act in 2001, leads incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson in
the state in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Johnson, 61, rode a wave of support from conservative Tea Party
activists to victory six years ago, sweeping Feingold out of office. But
polls this year have consistently shown Feingold ahead, although recent
surveys show a tighter race.
Privacy advocates and former Feingold staffers said they expected
Feingold, if returned to office, to be sympathetic to the privacy
concerns of technology companies and civil liberties groups on issues
such as encryption and domestic spying, at a time when many lawmakers
are being pressured to confront security threats from Islamic State and
other militant groups.
The Feingold campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> and other tech giants have
tussled in recent years with government agencies over how much user data
the companies should be forced to retain and share with investigators
hunting for criminal suspects or national security threats.
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Those tensions grew after former National Security Agency contractor
Edward Snowden leaked secrets about U.S. surveillance practices in 2013.
They reached a crescendo earlier this year when the FBI tried to force
Apple to unlock an iPhone tied to one of the shooters in a San
Bernardino, California, attack that killed 14 people.
Chief among the goals of many companies and privacy advocates is
reforming a foreign intelligence authority used to justify once-secret
broad internet surveillance programs exposed by Snowden that will expire
in December 2017 unless Congress reauthorizes them.
Should Feingold return to Capitol Hill, former staffers said he would
probably seek a seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he
would have privileged access to classified information about government
spying.
Feingold's campaign has received far more contributions than Johnson's
from donors employed by tech companies including Alphabet Inc's Google <GOOGL.O>
and Intel Corp <INTC.O>, a review of U.S. Federal Election Commission
records showed.
VOTED AGAINST PATRIOT ACT
Digital privacy activists have long regarded Feingold as an ally and
aggressive overseer of the intelligence community, a reputation he
burnished as the sole vote against the USA Patriot Act, which was passed
after the Sept. 11 attacks, expanding the government's surveillance
capabilities.
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![](../images/102716PICS/busine35.jpg)
U.S. Senate candidates Democratic incumbent Senator Russ Feingold
(L) and Republican challenger Ron Johnson debate at Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 22, 2010. REUTERS/Allen
Fredrickson/File Photo
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In a
speech from the Senate floor at the time, Feingold raised concerns that one
provision would allow the government to "go on a fishing expedition and collect
information on virtually anyone."
Leaks from Snowden in 2013 showed the provision Feingold questioned was later
secretly interpreted to conduct bulk surveillance on U.S. phone metadata. That
program was curtailed by Congress in 2015.
Feingold "was a true leader in fighting indiscriminate mass surveillance of
innocent Americans," U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who also is
among congressional skeptics of government spying, said in a statement.
Wisconsin typically leans Democratic during high-turnout presidential election
years, a problem for Johnson, who won by nearly 5 points in 2010 running as a
small-government outsider.
"It was pretty clear that 2010 was a wave election and there was nothing that
(Feingold) could have done to fend off the challenge from Ron Johnson," said
Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
Johnson has attempted to use Feingold's 18-year Senate record to portray him as
soft on national security. William Allison, a Johnson campaign spokesman, added
that Feingold had been "willing to completely mislead Wisconsinites about his
weak record on national security."
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
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