United States Senate election in Wisconsin, 1998

United States Senate election in Wisconsin, 1998

November 3, 1998

Nominee Russ Feingold Mark Neumann Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 890,059 852,272 Percentage 51% 48%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Russ Feingold Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Democratic

The 1998 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held on November 3, 1998. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold won re-election to a second term.

Major candidates

Democratic

• Russ Feingold, incumbent U.S. Senator

Republican

• Mark Neumann, U.S. Representative

Campaign

In September 1997, Neumann announced his candidacy for the United States Senate against Russell Feingold. Both candidates had similar views on the budget surplus, although Neumann was for banning partial-birth abortion while Feingold was against a ban. Both candidates limited themselves to $3.8 million in campaign spending ($1 for every citizen of Wisconsin), although outside groups spent more than $2 million on Neumann; Feingold refused to have outside groups spend their own 'soft money' on his behalf.^[1][2] Feingold defeated Neumann by a slim 2% margin in the election. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Neumann had a 30,000 vote margin outside Milwaukee County, but was overwhelmed by a 68,000 vote margin in Milwaukee County.

Results

General election results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Democratic	Russ Feingold	890,059	50.55
	Republican	Mark Neumann	852,272	48.40
	U.S. Taxpayers	Robert R. Raymond	7,942	0.45
	Libertarian	Tom Ender	5,591	0.32
	Independent	Eugene A. Hem	4,266	0.24
		Write-In Votes	706	0.04
Majority			37,787	2.15
Turnout			1,760,836
	Democratic hold

References

1. Online NewsHour: Political Wrap - October 30, 1998
2. http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/PastProjects/net-news/98-11/98-11-04/0002.html