How much money does Ron Johnson really have to spend on his U.S. Senate campaign?

By Zach W On June 30, 2010 · 6 Comments · In Uncategorized

It’s been rumored that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson may not have enough liquidity to pour 10 to 15 million dollars of his own money into his U.S. Senate campaign, as he previously said he’d do, and it’s also been speculated that Johnson’s overstated wealth may be one of the reasons he’s delayed filing his required financial disclosure paperwork.

As the good folks at One Wisconsin Now noted in a recent press release, Ron Johnson may in fact may not be as wealthy as he previously asserted:

Tax documents obtained from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue by One Wisconsin Now show Oshkosh Tea Party enthusiast and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson and his spouse have reported an estimated $12.2 million in income over the last 15 years. This would appear to either contradict claims by his campaign he will spend between $10-15 million in personal funds, or indicate Johnson has somehow shielded vast sums of money from his tax liability.

“How can Ron Johnson spent $15 million when he’s earned $12 million over the last decade and a half?” asked Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Since Ron Johnson is already trying to hide the true nature of his wealth from the people of Wisconsin, this raises serious questions.”

Johnson recently missed the deadline for filing a public financial disclosure report required by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Records from the DOR show Johnson and his wife have had a total of $824,976 in net tax. Dividing by the state’s top tax rate of 6.75 percent, they have an estimated $12.2 in income from 1994 to 2008.

I’ll be very curious to see Ron Johnson’s financial disclosure forms (once he actually gets around to submitting them), because I’m willing to bet Johnson doesn’t have the ability to self-fund his Senate campaign to the degree he led folks to believe (including, no doubt, the same Republican Party insiders who kicked Terrence Wall the curb on their way to handing Johnson the RPW’s endorsement).

Tagged with: Ron Johnson

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6 Responses to How much money does Ron Johnson really have to spend on his U.S. Senate campaign?

Matt says:

June 30, 2010 at 11:57 am

Then I assume you will retract all those “I’m rich, so that’s why I want to be a senator” ad-hominems?
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Locke says:

June 30, 2010 at 5:00 pm

Hilarious – which is it? Is he too rich and out of touch with voters or is he not rich enough and beholden to donors?

Bad enough One Wisconsin Now is about on par with Glen Beck on the objectivity scale, but apparently they’re just plain stupid too.

“How can Ron Johnson spent $15 million when he’s earned $12 million over the last decade and a half?” asked Scot Ross

Mr. Ross, how’s it feel to display such ignorance about campaign financing and money/logic in general? See there are these things called assets – things people own (though maybe you just prefer we do away private ownership). A person can sell or take out loans against them. In fact when determining a person’s wealth, income is actually not a very good indicator at all.

I’m so sick of the petty crap that has nothing to do with the positions of a candidate or the job they’ll do while in office. It’s bad enough when the politicians themselves pull this crap – at least we can vote them out. We wonder why people don’t give a damn.
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Zach W says:

June 30, 2010 at 6:34 pm

If Johnson does end up having less liquidity than he led folks to believe, that doesn’t mean he’s not still rich; it simply means he’s not as rich (or honest) as he led folks to believe.
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Ed Heinzelman says:

June 30, 2010 at 9:24 pm

“I’m so sick of the petty crap that has nothing to do with the positions of a candidate…”

I can’t disagree with you and Mr. Johnson could deflect some of the side interest if he’d start to get serious about posting positions.
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- Locke says:
  
  July 1, 2010 at 1:11 am
  
  And I can’t disagree with you about Johnson not being active enough in explaining his positions.
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Jim says:

July 1, 2010 at 12:04 am

One more reason it’s sketchy he hasn’t filled out the required disclosure forms. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if he conned the RPW into endorsing him based on money he didn’t have? But even if he doesn’t have $15 million, he’s still a rich guy from Wisconsin, which is good enough for Dick Morris, right?
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