Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Hovde promises to donate salary to charity

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde pledged in a new campaign ad Friday to donate his salary to charity if elected, a move that comes as Democrats try to paint the California bank owner and real estate mogul as an out-of-touch multimillionaire. “I don’t need their special interest money, and I won’t take it.” Hovde promises to give his entire $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary to a Wisconsin charity every year. “Wisconsin voters will see Eric Hovde for who he is: a megamillionaire, California bank owner who doesn’t share our values and can’t be trusted to fight for us,” Wisconsin Democratic Party spokesperson Arik Wolk said in response to Hovde’s charity pledge. Hovde’s promise to donate his salary to charity is reminiscent of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, also a multimillionaire, whose slogan was “Nobody’s Senator but Yours.” Kohl accepted his salary as a senator, which was then $89,500 when he joined in 1989, but returned all of the pay raises to the treasury.