Ron Johnson and Ben Ganther

UPDATE: What a surprise!

The Russ Feingold campaign tweets that "Ron Johnson's ties to tea party rally sponsor go way back."

Note to Feingold: A Tea Party rally isn't a Nazi rally.

Russ thanks his "watchdogs" at the Journal Sentinel.
__________________

Dan Bice, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, makes a pathetic attempt to dig up dirt and spread the word on Ron Johnson.

Unfortunately for Bice and the liberal Journal Sentinel, it's a complete failure.

Bice tries to suggest that Johnson's relationship with Ben Ganther, a fellow Oshkosh businessman, is laced with corruption.

Instead of presenting any compelling revelations, his article is much ado about absolutely nothing.

Bice writes:

U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson may be a first-time candidate for office.

But he is no political virgin.

Indeed, Johnson has already mastered the first rule of politics:

I scratch your back; then you scratch mine.

This is so silly.

What's Bice trying to do? Make the case that Johnson is a "career politician" even though this is his first run for office?

That's right. Johnson really is a political veteran. He's no different than the Washington-entrenched Russ Feingold. How lame!

Just consider his connections to fellow Oshkosh businessman Ben Ganther, the guy who helped sponsor the tea party rally last year that launched Johnson's political career.

What?

Ganther helped sponsor a tea party rally?

GASP!

Imagine that. An Oshkosh businessman believes he's been TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY and so he was involved in a rally expressing discontent with the direction of the country. Ron Johnson, Oshkosh businessman was on board.

GASP!

There's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.

Over the years, Ganther Construction has won millions of dollars in contracts from Johnson's own firm and several nonprofits with which the Republican candidate is affiliated.

For instance, city construction permits show Johnson's plastics company, Pacur, hired Ganther's shop to do more than $1.9 million worth of work at Pacur's headquarters since 2005, including an expansion of the basement and installation of a mezzanine.

So when Johnson announced in May that he was taking on Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, Ganther rushed forward with the maximum donation of $4,800 just weeks later. And in late June, Ganther was a host of a Johnson fund-raiser that appears to have brought in $31,500 for the multimillionaire businessman.

But last week, Johnson rejected any suggestion that Ganther was returning the favor for their past associations.

"Not at all," Johnson said. "He agrees with my policy positions."

That is perfectably reasonable.

There's is no reason whatsoever to question the ethics of Johnson here. Most people do share the policy positions of others. That's going to happen in a two-party system.

This isn't the first time the pair's business and political connections have come together.

Starting in 2004, Johnson and Ganther were two of the leaders of a political action committee called Forward Oshkosh. The group funneled money to candidates who supported a taxpayer bill of rights, among other things.

Johnson made a total of five donations worth about $2,000 to the PAC and its affiliated conduit committee.

Oh, my God!

Johnson has made political donations!

How dare he!

This really is ridiculous.

That, of course, is chicken feed compared to his other political giving. In 2005, he and his wife Jane chipped Search+&employer=PACUR"> chipped Search+&employer=PACUR in a little more than $10,000 to GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Green's campaign fund. In the past year, the pair gave $10,500 to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker , the current Republican nominee for governor.

"Search+&employer=PACUR"> chipped Search+&employer=PACUR."

Oops!



I assume someone will take care of this error as soon one of the professionals at the Journal Sentinel becomes aware of it.

Johnson said last week that the Forward Oshkosh PAC was focused on getting good people into local offices. The group has not been active for a couple of years.

Ganther did not return repeated calls last week.

What is Bice's point?

What's wrong with Johnson contributing to candidates he supports?

He has every right to donate.

What's wrong with him being involved in a political action committee at one time?

I don't see why this is a problem or even worth noting.

Before Herb Kohl ran for the Senate, did he ever make any campaign contributions? Was Kohl a "political virgin"?

I assume multi-millionaire Kohl made contributions. I also assume that Kohl had business contacts that went back years and years. As for Kohl's virginity, I prefer not to comment.

I think Johnson should be commended for being involved in the political process and not sitting on the sidelines. It's certainly not something negative.

The connections between Johnson's family and the Ganther firm dates back to at least 1978. That's when Ganther built a 25,000-square-foot warehouse for a subsidiary of Bemis Co., which is run by Johnson's in-laws and is a Pacur client.

In recent years, the ties between Johnson and Ganther have grown stronger. Along with the work for Johnson's own firm, Oshkosh construction permits show Ganther was hired to:

• Remodel and repair the basement, stairs, gym and library of Lourdes High School after major flooding at the Catholic school at a cost of $2.55 million in 2008. At that time, Johnson was the treasurer of the Lourdes Foundation for the Unified Catholic Schools of Oshkosh, which oversees the area's parochial schools, according to federal tax filings.

• Oversee the architecture and construction work on the $9.7 million upgrade of the sports complex at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 2008. Johnson was on the fund-raising committee for the project. The amount paid Ganther was not immediately known.

• Knock out some walls in the second floor of the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh at a cost of $10,000 in 2008 while Johnson was on the opera foundation's board.

So what?

Is there something wrong with running a successful business?

Maybe Bice could enlighten us on jobs that Ganther didn't get.

I suppose Barrett's campaign or someone in the Democrat-Union-Media Complex didn't supply Bice with that information.

In addition, state lawmakers included $500,000 toward a planned $1.8 million upgrade of the opera house in the 2009-'10 budget.

"No money to catch child molesters, but cash for an opera house in Oshkosh," conservative talk-show host Charlie Sykes wrote at the time. "How's that going to look on a bumper sticker next year?"

This is really lame.

Is the quote from Charlie Sykes supposed to be some sort of "gotcha" thing?

It fails.

Sykes was questioning the lawmakers' judgment, not that of Ron Johnson.

Johnson wasn't in the legislature. He had nothing to do with how funds were appropriated. He didn't vote on the budget.

Johnson was doing business. I find nothing unusual or inappropriate about that.

Before the item was inserted in the budget bill, The Oshkosh Northwestern reported last month, Oshkosh Area Community Foundation CEO Eileen Connolly-Keesler sent an e-mail to state Rep. Gordon Hintz, saying Johnson inquired about the availability of stimulus dollars for the renovations.

Team Feingold Leftists think an interest in stimulus dollars shows Johnson to be a hypocrite because he believes that the private sector creates jobs, not the government.

What Bice conveniently fails to clarify is the content of this alleged smoking gun e-mail.

Upon contacting the Oshkosh Northwestern, Sykes thoroughly debunks the notion that Johnson "sought" stimulus funds. He wrote about this issue in September. Did Bice miss that?

I find it hard to believe someone as professional as Bice would be so sloppy. Was the omission intentional? Did the Feingold camp simply say "pretty please"?

In August 2009, Johnson urged the Oshkosh City Council to hire TheBoldt Co. as the primary construction contractor on the project "as they did a wonderful job on the North Shore renovation," according to council minutes. The council followed Johnson's advice. Since then, Boldt has hired Ganther as a subcontractor to do $225,000 in demolition work at the opera house in January and lighting design and other work since then.

Reached last week, Johnson defended all of the deals, saying Ganther does good work and beat out other firms.

"Those were competitively bid," he said while dashing to his campaign van.

In response to a question, his campaign later sent a statement making it clear that the Republican candidate has no ownership interest in Ganther Construction.

I would find Bice's piece rather amusing if it didn't piss me off so much.

"The connections between Johnson's family and the Ganther firm dates back to at least 1978. That's when Ganther built a 25,000-square-foot warehouse for a subsidiary of Bemis Co., which is run by Johnson's in-laws and is a Pacur client."

This is insane - a subsidiary, run by Johnson's in-laws. Wow! What deep and shady ties!

The liberal media all but ignored Obama's connections and dirty dealings with Tony Rezko, the convicted felon.

But we should be troubled that the Ganther firm built a warehouse for "a subsidiary of Bemis Co., which is run by Johnson's in-laws and is a Pacur client."

That's nuts.

Ganther was hired to do work. That's legitimate. It's no surprise that Johnson and Ganther, Oshkosh businessmen, would have a business relationship and share interests regarding business in Wisconsin; yet Bice makes the connection out to be crooked.

The liberal media all but ignored Obama's professional, political, and personal ties to Bill Ayers, a proud anarchist and an unrepentant terrorist. As a member of the Weather Underground, Ayers plotted to overthrow the U.S. government. He also launched Obama's political career.

But we should be troubled that Ganther helped to sponsor a Tea Party rally that involved Ron Johnson. Good grief, Ganther didn't bomb the Pentagon.

Absolutely nuts.

This stuff from Bice, "willing partner" of Russ Feingold's campaign, reveals just how desperate the Left is to derail Johnson's strong appeal to the people of Wisconsin, those wanting to vote for real hope and change.

This makes Feingold and his hacks in the liberal media look foolish.