Ron Johnson Funding Senate Campaign With BP Profits?

06:16 PM Jul 29, 2010

Ron Johnson has taken a good deal of heat over the past several weeks for his ownership of up to $315,000 worth of British Petroleum stock, given BP’s role in the Gulf Coast oil disaster. Johnson’s stake in BP (and his avowed support of Big Oil) came under further scrutiny when he admitted he was open to drilling in the Great Lakes.

Initially Johnson said that he would place his BP stock in a blind trust, but upon further review, he appears to have come up with a better solution: he plans on selling the BP stock to fund his Senate campaign.

Then after a campaign rally days later, Johnson told reporters he planned to sell the BP PLC stock to help finance his campaign against Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold. Monday, he said the sale wasn't certain.

"I think that will eventually happen, but I'm going to do it based on market conditions," Johnson said after a lunch hosted by the political website wispolitics.com. "I'm going to have to finance this campaign. ... At some point in time, to get my message out, that will probably happen. But it's going to be based on market conditions."

When asked if he would not sell the stock if the price was low, Johnson said, "We'll just watch. I haven't made a decision on that yet."

Johnson is waiting to make a profit off BP - the company that devastated the Gulf Coast- so he can turn around and use that money to fund his personal political ambitions.

Wisconsin must be so proud.

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