Ron Johnson and Mark Levin

Ron Johnson was interviewed by Mark Levin on his radio program yesterday.

Listen to the interview here.

Transcript

MARK LEVIN: There is a huge, huge senate race going on in the great state of Wisconsin where Russ Feingold is in trouble thanks to his opponent, Ron Johnson.

RonJohnsonforSenate.com, Mr. Johnson, how are you, sir?

RON JOHNSON: Real good, Mark. Thanks for having me on.

LEVIN: First of all, thanks for what you're doing, because I happen to think Russ Feingold is one of the most Left-wing and irresponsible members of the U.S. Senate. Tell me why I'm right.

JOHNSON: Well, first of all, from my standpoint, all he had to do was be the deciding vote for the health care bill and that disqualifies him in my book, but he was also the deciding vote for the stimulus bill. He's voted for the last three budgets that have incurred almost $3.5 trillion in debt in our nation. So, that's all I need to know about him, and he needs to be replaced. It's about time for Sen. Feingold to be retired.

LEVIN: Now, he's been in there 18 years, right?

JOHNSON: Yes, he has, almost 18, three terms.

LEVIN: Now, one of the reasons, I mean, in addition to public policy reasons, you're opposed to ObamaCare is because this could have affected your family directly, correct?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. This was the final straw for me getting into the race and it's pretty personal to me because my first child, my daughter, Carey, was born with a very serious congenital heart defect. And at the age of 8 months, the upper chamber of her heart was totally reconstructed. Her heart is backwards right now, Mark. But she's 27 years old and she's a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit herself.

Because we do have the finest health care system in the world and this health care bill will destroy it. The more I go around Wisconsin and talk to doctors, I'm more and more convinced this will lead to a single payer Canadian-style system. It will lead to rationing, a lower quality of care, and this medical innovation that saved my daughter's life -- it's going to be gone. It will come to a grinding halt. So these are pretty serious issues facing our nation right now.

LEVIN: So you'll be one of those leading the way to get rid of this ObamaCare, I take it.

JOHNSON: Absolutely. I'm dedicated to its repeal.

LEVIN: Well, that is absolutely terrific. Tell us a little bit about your background. Are you a career politician?

JOHNSON: No, I've never, ever considered running for politics. I would be what you'd call a classic citizen legislator. I've been building the same business in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for 31 years. We manufacture plastic for medical device industries and also printing applications and we export around the world, 25 different countries. Actually, one of our largest export markets is China. So, I know how to do that and that's definitely resonating.

People do understand that the vision of our founding fathers was people that had a full life, had a full career, raised a family. Take that lifetime, that body of experience, take that to the nation's capital and apply that perspective to our nation's problems. I think people are just sick and tired of these career politicians that, let's face it, they're the cause of the problem. We need to be, the voters need to be the term limit. And I think people are getting that here in Wisconsin.

LEVIN: Folks, this is Ron Johnson, who is the Republican candidate against Russ Feingold for the Senate in Wisconsin, who is running a remarkably splendid campaign. And you're basically running it on the issues. You're exposing his record and you're telling people why you disagree with him and what you would do, right?

JOHNSON: Well, Mark, it's such a simple race. I mean, people get the fact that we're spending $1.5 trillion more than we're taking in -- we've done that the last couple of years. Congress didn't even have the guts to pass a budget this year. They're just deeming one because they didn't want their fingerprints on this. People know that thirteen and a half trillion dollars in debt is too much. It's unsustainable, and they do recognize that this health care bill will destroy the finest health care system in the world.

So, it's a very simple race. Fortunately, it is for me because I'm a rookie at this.

LEVIN: And yet he's such an ideologue of the Left. He's such a knee-jerk Leftist that it's really, it really is an important philosophical battle over our founding principles, over pro-growth capitalist system versus the other side, right?

JOHNSON: Sure, and you take a look at his kind of one signature achievement, what I call the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act, that's a huge assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. And a lot of people agree with me. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that agree with him, and we just received word last week that MoveOn.org put on a big old fundraising event for him, or an effort, and they raised about five or six hundred thousand dollars in a couple 24-hour periods so we're trying to respond to that with our own fundraising online effort called 'TiptheScale2010.com,' and I certainly hope your listeners would be willing to help us out. Help us retire Russ Feingold. That would be a beautiful thing.

LEVIN: Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing, and obviously not just for you but the rest of the country? Every one of these races are national as far as I'm concerned. Now, if we go to RonJohnsonforSenate.com, can people support you that way?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. And I'm sure that will also have a tie into the TiptheScale2010.com as well.

LEVIN: So MoveOn.org and these other Leftist organizations, I mean hard Left organizations, have raised almost half a million dollars for him in recent days because they know that he's in trouble. And so he's going to try and swamp you with all these TV ads telling the good people of Wisconsin what a fiscal conservative he is, so you need to raise money fast.

JOHNSON: That would be very helpful. And in addition to that, they're trying to bring a thousand people from out of state, to come into the state to kind of work for him as volunteers as well.

Now, Russ Feingold, he's the darling of the Left. He is the most liberal senator in the Senate, and he's going to have support from these very liberal groups. So I can use all the help and support I can get. I'd really appreciate it.

LEVIN: RonJohnsonforSenate.com - How many kids do you have?

JOHNSON: We have three children. They're all adults which gives me the perfect opportunity here in my life, I'm 55 years old. This is the time to become a citizen legislator.

LEVIN: Well, I'm all for citizen legislators. And Mr. Johnson, we really appreciate it. You keep at it, OK?

JOHNSON: Will do. Thanks for having me on, Mark.

LEVIN: Well, my pleasure. God bless you. It's RonJohnsonforSenate.com, RonJohnsonforSenate.com. He has a lead right now in the polls over Feingold, but ladies and gentlemen, that's not enough.

Every one of these races in every state, in every congressional district, these Left-wing Democrats are crazed right now. They're lying through their teeth. They're trying to convince people who haven't been paying attention.

Levin is right. Our senate race in Wisconsin is a national race.

Those of us opposed to the liberal policies of Obama and his fringe Left Democrats, like Feingold, have a stake in all these races across the country.

I'm sure Levin's audience of millions will respond to Johnson's effort to retire Feingold.

LEVIN: The whole whory mess of them need to go. And Russ Feingold's one of the biggest jerks of the bunch.

...Imagine waking up the day after the election. Ron Johnson defeats Russ Feingold. He's gone come the following January.

That would be waking up to real hope and change.
_____________________

Ron Johnson is on Mark Levin's list of "Important Conservative Candidates Heard on the Mark Levin Show."