J/S: FEINGOLD OWNS $94K PACKERS STOCK!?

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

and the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team


According to a graphic in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning, Sunday, June 22nd, 2008, Senator Russell Feingold "owns $94,500 in Green Bay Packers stock." He therefore joins Senator Herbert H. Kohl in the ranks of those with significant assets in a professional sports franchise. (Kohl's Milwaukee Bucks stock is valued at $260 million, the paper says, quoting Forbes Magazine.)

Of course this is colossal joke. According to the Feingold for Senate website, in 2002 he declared that he owned one share of Packers stock. Its value at the time was described as "infinite." Russ likes to kid. I'm not sure where the Journal Sentinel got the $94,500 value, but any Packer fan knows there is no such thing as $94,500 in Packer stock.
For one thing, Packer stock cannot be transferred outside the owner's family (upon death, at that) can only be resold to the team and only at "a fraction of its value." It pays no dividends and does not appreciate in value. The last time Packers stock was offered for sale, in 1998, it was priced at $200 per share, and that's when Russ bought his single share.
Here is Feingold's Statement of Financial Interests filed with the Senate. He signed the document on May 15th, 2008. His only publicly traded asset is between $100,001 and $250,000 of Calvert Fund Moderate Allocation Fund. The sole non-publicly traded asset in the Feingold portfolio is between $50,001 and $100,000 in the Wisconsin Retirement System, Feingold's pension from his service in the Wisconsin legislature. There is no mention of any other holdings outside of the under $1,001 in his bank account. He does not list the virtually valueless Packer stock, but apparently included it somewhere when he "complied fully with the newspaper's request" to provide the above cited statement of financial interests along with a complete statement of net worth, which, at $452,500, is probably overstated to the tune of $94,500 by the paper's gullibility.

[Update: Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 -- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel issued a correction today to its account of Feingold's holdings. Turns out the $94,500 figure listed is the value of his Calvert Fund, although that asset is listed in the range of $100,001 and $250,000 on the official checklist. But the fund has been dropping. The paper says "the senator listed the value of his Packers share as 'infinite.'" (Let us recollect that infinity goes in both directions). Finally, it appears that the statement of net worth at $452,500 is correct.-- Ed.]