Ex-Senator Feingold launches new issue group

Former US Sen. Russ Feingold says he is launching a new group that will advocate for voting rights, redistricting reform, campaign finance laws and the abolition of the Electoral College, among other things.

In an interview, Feingold said the common thread in these issues is shoring up a political process that he says is losing legitimacy in the eyes of many voters.

For example, the Wisconsin Democrat cited the election in recent years of two presidents who lost the popular vote (George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016), saying the Electoral College is eroding public confidence in democracy and should be scrapped.

Feingold said partisan gerrymandering, voting restrictions and deregulation of campaign fundraising and spending were also distorting elections and “having a devastating impact on people’s faith in our government.“

The former senator said his group would also focus on the handling of Supreme Court nominations, citing the refusal of Senate Republicans to grant a hearing last year to President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.

Feingold, who served on the Senate judiciary committee, has argued in recent op-eds that the GOP’s refusal to act on the Garland nomination, making it possible for the party to fill the seat under a Republican President Trump, constitutes a “cynical political takeover” of the court from which the institution may not recover.

“This an opportunity for me and number of us to reflect on what we really think is happening in the country, apart from what is an understandable obsession with the behavior of Donald Trump. A lot of attacks on basic American institutions have been going on for … years. These preceded Donald Trump and they will (continue) after Donald Trump,” he said. "It is delegitimizing very important institutions of our democracy."

Feingold said the new group will be called LegitAction and will be a non-profit advocacy organization, not a political action committee. The Wisconsin Democrat said he will speak for the group but not be employed by it.

Feingold recently finished a teaching stint at American University in Washington D.C. and will be teaching at other universities in the future, he said.

Feingold served three terms in the US Senate before being defeated by Republican Ron Johnson in 2010, He lost a rematch with Johnson last fall.