Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin manufacturer elected to the U.S. Senate

The Associated Press has now projected Ron Johnson, a Republican, to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.

Johnson effectively highlighted his business background in his campaign, making the point in ads (pictured left, full video here) that while 57 lawyers served in the Senate, there were no manufacturers.

From his campaign bio:

In 1979, Ron and Jane moved to Wisconsin, where Ron started a business called PACUR with his brother-in-law. Ron was the accountant and a machine operator, and for most of the company’s first year, Ron traded 12 hour shifts with his brother-in-law until they could train other operators.

With the help and dedication of the fine people Ron had the privilege of working with, PACUR has grown from a company supplying a single customer to the largest producer in the world of a specialty plastic used in medical device packaging and high tech printing applications. PACUR sells its products all around the world, with one of its largest export markets being China. PACUR is still proud to say: “We don’t export jobs, we export plastic.”

Rich Lowry, editor of The National Review, covered a recent speech Johnson gave to a hometown Chamber of Commerce group and reports, “Why Ron Johnson Is Winning“:

Johnson is an outsider’s outsider in an outsider’s year. The head of an Oshkosh manufacturing firm, he talks to the Chamber crowd as one of them. The schedule that is e-mailed out to reporters doesn’t say Ron Johnson will be at a given event, but that “Oshkosh manufacturer and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson” will be at a given event.

“Maybe what we really need in this country,” he tells the Chamber crowd, “are citizen-legislators. People who have led a normal life, an ordinary life, a full life. Who had a full career, raised a family, drove their kids to school, attended their events.”

PACUR’s website is here.  Congratulations, Senat0r-elect Johnson.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee: “Feingold, NAM also urge Export-Import Bank to rethink Bucyrus decision“:

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and the National Association of Manufacturers have joined in urging the U.S. Export-Import Bank to reconsider its decision to deny financing of mining equipment for a coal-fired power plant in India, which has effectively canceled a $600 million equipment order for Bucyrus International Inc.

 Milwauke Journal-Sentinel, “Calls mount mount for Export-Import Bank to reverse Bucyrus decision“:

Former Michigan Gov. John Engler has urged the U.S. Export-Import Bank to reverse its recent decision that denied loan guarantees for mining equipment that would be made by Bucyrus International to supplying coal for a power plant in India. 

Engler, now president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said he spoke with Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg. 

AP reports that Bucyrus chief executive Tim Sullivan has spoken with officials at the U.S. Export-Import Bank, who have told him they are having detailed discussions with the White House about it. It’s hard to see how President Obama can travel to Racine, Wisc., Wednesday to talk about the economy and not have this issue resolved.

Four Senators recently introduced a bill that would resurrect litigation against U.S. telecom companies that complied with U.S. government orders to assist in electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists overseas. The bill sends a terrible message that legal immunity, once established, can still be taken away by Congress in the pursuit of political goals.  The legislation also reminds private citizens who want to help fights terrorism that they should expect to be sued for their trouble.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced S. 1725, the Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act, on September 29 joined by Sens. Feingold, Leahy and Merkley. The bill would “remove retroactive immunity protection for electronic communications service providers that participated in the Terrorist Surveillance Program and for other purposes.” (Senators’ news release.) Vitiating legally established immunity is disturbing in any context, but in this case, it’s especially troubling because it would allow the continuation of legal harassment of good corporate citizens.

The Senators are reviving a debate settled in 2008 when Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act, H.R. 6304, to extend the federal authority (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA) to conduct surveillance of overseas electronic communications. These communications — phone calls, text messages, etc. — may have had a U.S. nexus, i.e., crossing through U.S. network or involving foreigners calling into the United States to speak to a non-citizen.  However, as applied to overseas communications, the Justice Department held that this surveillance did not require a judicial warrant; passage of the FISA Amendments reaffirmed that position.

A key issue in the FISA reauthorization was whether civil immunity should be granted to telecommunications companies that complied with federal orders to assist in the surveillance.  Lawmakers supported granting civil immunity in the wake of the September 11 terrorism attacks, concluding that companies should not be punished for helping to stop terrorism, especially when the companies are following what they understand to be legal orders. (continue reading…)