SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- For a man who has crusaded for campaign-finance reform, for running on positive themes and for avoiding expensive negative ads, Sen. Russell D. Feingold sure sounds like he's having second thoughts.

In a last-minute rush and in fear of losing his seat, Feingold, who refused to take money for negative ads from outside groups, is going negative on the stump. But he sounds almost apologetic for his attacks against Republican Rep. Mark W. Neumann.

"I realize it puts me in danger that I don't get up and say all these negative things on TV," he sheepishly tells a polite crowd at the Sheboygan Senior Center that just heard him go after Neumann on everything from proposed cuts in Medicare to ending aid for the poor. "But I have faith in the people of this state."

Neumann, while pledging some financial restraint of his own, has gladly accepted millions of dollars in advertising from special-interest groups intent on knocking off a Democratic incumbent and has happily gone negative in his own ads.

On Tuesday, Feingold will discover whether living by his preachings was more foolish than noble. In an election year where races are being fought on local issues and no sweeping national themes have emerged, Feingold's struggle for re-election may provide one of the only meaningful lessons to emerge from campaign '98.

"Feingold, by taking this stand, has issued a challenge to the whole political establishment, to see if anyone can run under these conditions," said Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Feingold sympathizer. "If he had run as a typical incumbent, he'd be up by 15 points right now, and we wouldn't even be talking."

So far, at least, integrity seems to have only placed Feingold in real danger of losing his seat.

Feingold and Neumann are locked in a dead heat, "about as dead heat as anything I've ever seen," Neumann declared. A poll released yesterday found Neumann ahead, 46 percent to 43 percent. Another poll released Oct. 26 showed Feingold up 47 percent to 40 percent.

A year ago, by most predictions, the Senate race in Wisconsin was not supposed to be a contest at all. Although he is just completing his first term, Feingold fit in well with the state's progressive traditions and flare for reform. He shares top billing on Congress' most ambitious campaign finance overhaul bill with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The campaign finance battle was supposed to give Feingold a squeaky clean, outsider image.

His challenger, a bookish, former mathematics teacher, has proven himself to be one of the House's staunchest conservatives. But Neumann has his own maverick streak, constantly jousting with GOP leaders on spending bills that he considered too bloated in size and scope. Last year, Neumann refused to support Newt Gingrich's re-election as House speaker.

That streak of righteousness has earned Neumann a devoted following, but his abrasive tactics were expected to grate on civil Wisconsonites in a statewide race. When a robust Midwestern economy was added to the equation, Feingold appeared likely to cruise to re-election. In most state polls this summer, the senator held a lead of up to 15 percentage points.

But that was before Aug. 11, when Neumann assaulted the airwaves with a barrage of advertisements that painted Feingold as a profligate spender on anything from cow-flatulence research to Russian space monkeys. Neumann, on the other hand, introduced himself to the state as a thoughtful fiscal moderate out to save Social Security from free-spending Democrats and rescue future generations from a crushing national debt.

"I've been waiting all my life for someone to say what he's saying," said Steve Sievers, who gave $2,000 to Neumann's campaign -- the first time he has contributed that much money to a candidate.

In response to the ads, Feingold did very little. Environmental groups splashed the airwaves with a few ads painting Neumann as a polluter. But Neumann and his allies largely had the television time to themselves, just when an incumbent is usually trying to throw the challenger on his heels.

Both men pledged to limit their expenditures to $1 per registered voter, or about $3.8 million. But while Feingold tried to discourage so-called "independent expenditures," Neumann did nothing to stop allies such as the National Rifle Association and anti-abortion groups from pouring in at least $1 million in unregulated "soft money" on his behalf.

By the time Feingold aired his first response to pro-Neumann ads, the average Wisconsin voter had already seen 20 ads against him, by some estimates.

And Feingold has remained outgunned. Last month, when Feingold shelled out $6,000 for a week's advertisements on the NBC affiliate in Madison, Neumann countered with his own $4,600 purchase, and the Republican Party joined in with another $15,368 in commercials the same week.

"I wouldn't want to be involved in this kind of corrupt exercise, in this legalized bribery, if my life depended on it," Feingold said, insisting he would have no regrets if he came up short Tuesday.

Such talk incenses Neumann, who calls the whole money issue a sham. He notes that labor unions as well as environmental group have run ads on Feingold's behalf. The National Democratic Senate Campaign Committee prepared a blistering ad attacking Neumann for being "too extreme" for Wisconsin. Feingold publicly demanded this week that the committee shelve them, but the ads continue to run in the Milwaukee area.

"What the candidate wants to do or doesn't want to do, I typically wouldn't listen to it," shrugged Sen. Bob Kerrey, the Nebraska Democrat who heads the committee.

Neumann is now trying to turn what he sees as Feingold's self-righteous campaign conduct against him. A new batch of radio and television ads show Feingold professing to take the high road even as campaign ads are aired on the Democrat's behalf.

"In Wisconsin, voters are going to tell Russ Feingold taking the high road means telling the truth," the new ad intones.

Said Neumann: "I'm just calling him a hypocrite."

But an overhaul of the campaign finance system has been a fixture of Feingold's political appeal since his first run for the Senate in 1992. Feingold is also running on the broader Democratic themes of protecting Medicare and Social Security.

Neumann has found his own themes, hammering at Feingold for his vote to raise taxes in 1993, his alleged willingness to spend the Social Security surplus (which Feingold denies), his opposition to a constitutional amendment banning flag burning and his support in some cases for late-term abortions.

If those ideas win out in the end, Neumann said it will have nothing to do with campaign cash and everything to do with Wisconsin voters, who may be growing more conservative. He concedes that they recently elected two relatively liberal Democratic senators, but they also solidly support a conservative Republican governor, Tommy G. Thompson, who is coasting to a fourth consecutive term.

"I've been up and down this state, and you know what?" Neumann asks at a campaign rally at the Trysting Place Pub in Menomonee Falls. "Our people are fired up and ready to go."

For his part, Feingold insists Neumann has peaked. In the end, the challenger will not be able to get too far beyond his conservative base in a state fed up with Neumann's brand of attack politics, Feingold said.

"They've had a good look at us now," Feingold said of the voters. "All this negative stuff, trying to win an election by any means is wearing on the people of Wisconsin."

Pub Date: 10/29/98