Feingold says he won’t run for office in 2012

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Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold will not run for public office in 2012, he says in today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

According to the report, Feingold’s election year plans are to continue teaching law full-time at Marquette University Law School, to work with his campaign finance reform PAC, and to finish the book he is writing about the U.S. response to the 9/11 terror attacks.

Speculation about Feingold’s intentions has abounded in recent months. The national political spotlight has focused on the stiff backlash in Wisconsin against Governor Scott Walker’s controversial plan to limit collective bargaining for public employees and enact what many see as an anti-union, pro-corporate agenda.

Feingold, a hero to many progressives, was seen by some as a possible challenger to Walker in a projected recall election fight. Others had hopes of seeing the long-time reformer battle his way back into the Senate.

Instead, he seeks to carry on the work he began on his committee for campaign finance reform, work he perceives as being in particular peril now. The Journal-Sentinel quotes him as saying, “The entire political climate is more infected by the domination of very wealthy individual and corporate interests than perhaps at any time in our nation’s history”.