Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Hovde promises to donate salary to charity
MADISON, Wis. — Eric Hovde, the Republican candidate for the US Senate from Wisconsin, pledged in a new campaign ad on Friday to donate his salary to charity if elected, a move that comes as Democrats try to unseat the California bank owner and real estate mogul. to paint as an outrageous multi-millionaire.
Hovde has suggested he will spend as much as $20 million of his own money in the race to defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. The race is one of a few that could determine whether Democrats retain majority control of the Senate.
“I worked hard and was lucky,” Hovde says in the ad. “I don’t need their special interest money, and I won’t take it.”
Hovde pledges to donate his entire $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary to a Wisconsin charity each year. His spokesman, Ben Voelkel, said the exact charities had yet to be determined but would not include the Hovde Foundation, a charity run by Hovde’s family.
“I cannot be bought,” Hovde says on the spot, where he vows not to be subject to special interests. Hovde has already said he doesn’t accept donations from corporate special interests, but he also has no control over how they spend their money on a campaign.
Hovde faces nominal opposition in August’s Republican primary. The general election is on November 5.
Hovde was born and raised in Wisconsin, but also owns a $7 million estate in Laguna Beach, California, and is CEO of California-based H Bancorp and its main subsidiary, Sunwest Bank. He is also CEO of Hovde Properties, a Madison-based real estate company founded by his grandfather in 1933.
Hovde has not said whether he would divest his financial interests if elected.
Hovde’s net worth was at least $52 million in 2012, the last time he ran for Senate. Hovde lost in the Republican primary that year to former Governor Tommy Thompson, who lost to Baldwin.
Hovde and his supporters have tried to portray Baldwin, who was first elected to Congress in 1998, as a career politician who has spent too much time in elected office. She spent six years in the state legislature before being elected to Congress.
Baldwin and Democrats, meanwhile, have portrayed Hovde as a Californian out of control. Hovde tried to combat that image by submerging himself in a lake in Madison in February. He challenged Baldwin to do it, but she refused.
“Wisconsin voters will see Eric Hovde for who he is: a mega-millionaire, a California bank owner who does not share our values and cannot be trusted to fight for us,” said Arik Wolk, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, in response on Hovde’s charity pledge. .
Hovde’s promise to donate his salary to charity is reminiscent of former Democratic U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, also a multimillionaire, whose slogan was, “No man’s senator but your own.” Kohl accepted his salary as senator, which was $89,500 when he joined in 1989, but returned all raises to the Treasury. Kohl died in December.