Ron Johnson pockets $400,000 from donors for old campaign loans despite saying he wouldn't do so

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is paying himself back hundreds of thousands of dollars for loans he made to his prior Senate campaigns, despite claiming he wouldn't seek to recoup the money from donors.

The multi-millionaire Oshkosh Republican received $400,000 from his campaign account in early May, according to his latest filing with the Federal Elections Commission. The payments were made in two installments of $150,000 each and two more of $60,000 and $40,000, all on May 3, for loans from his successful 2010 and 2016 elections.

The repayments are legal.

In May 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in its Ted Cruz v. FEC decision that federal candidates are entitled to use an unlimited amount of cash raised after an election to repay loans that they had previously made to their campaign. Federal lawmakers had previously placed a $250,000 cap on the amount of money that candidates could raise after their election to repay old campaign loans.

But Johnson, a former plastics executive, previously said that he wouldn't seek to repay the $8.4 million in outstanding loans he claimed his campaign owes him for loans in his 2010 and 2016 campaigns.

"I don't have any expectation to get paid back," Johnson told Insider Inc. on May 17 when asked about a comment on his financial disclosure form that noted "all funds to prior campaigns have been deemed loans and suitable for repayment."

In fact, Johnson had begun to recoup some of those loans two weeks before he made the remarks to the Insider, according to the latest FEC report released this past Saturday.

A Johnson advisor in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday said only: "The $400,000 payment is primarily against pre-Cruz ruling loans. The senator has little expectation that the full loans will be repaid."

Last week, Johnson sent out multiple emails saying he needed to raise money to pay off old debts.

"I’ll get straight to the point: even though we won, my campaign had to take on some debt," Johnson wrote in one of the solicitations. "I was hoping I could convince you to chip in now to help me pay off this debt."

Wisconsin Democrats noted that Johnson has come under fire in the past after PACUR, his plastics fabrication firm that he has since sold, paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly after his 2010 campaign. During that race, Johnson had personally loaned $9 million to his campaign to help him defeat incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin).

"And now, thanks to Ted Cruz’s bogus arguments before the Supreme Court, he’s bilking his donors to pay himself back a second time," said Joe Oslund, spokesman for the state Democratic Party. "Ron Johnson owes Ted Cruz a thank you note for helping him put together the down payment for his next private jet."

The latest FEC report from Johnson, who was reelected to a third term last year, shows the state's senior senator raised just over $1.8 million in the first half of 2023 and spent about $2 million, a sum that includes the $400,000 in repayments for old loans.

He reported having about $550,000 in cash on hand as of June 30.

Johnson's most recent financial disclosure form, filed May 15, indicates Johnson's net worth is between $24.7 million and $86.2 million, making him among the Senate's most wealthy members. In 2020, he sold his ownership stake in PACUR, a deal that made him between $5 million and $25 million, according to his past ethics filing.

He makes $174,000 a year as a U.S. senator.

Follow Lawrence Andrea on Twitter @lawrencegandrea. Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson pockets $400,000 from donors to repay old campaign loans