Russ Feingold

Russell Dana Feingold is an American lawyer, diplomat, and progressive Democratic politician from Dane County, Wisconsin. From 1993 to 2011, he served three terms as a United States senator representing Wisconsin. In the Senate, Feingold was known for being the only U.S. senator to vote against the Patriot Act, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. His signature legislative achievement was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which he wrote in collaboration with Republican senator John McCain; while working to pass that legislation, Feingold and McCain were honored with the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their efforts. The 2002 McCain-Feingold Act was briefly hailed as a landmark good government reform, limiting the influence of money in U.S. politics, but the reforms were quickly circumvented as wealthy interests found new means to influence campaigns, culminating in the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed unlimited donations to political action committees (PACs).