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.
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.
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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.
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![](../images/102716PICS/news_x45.jpg)
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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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.
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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