Former US Sen. Feingold Visits University of Illinois

A former Democratic U.S. Senator who championed campaign finance reform visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Friday.

Russ Feingold represented Wisconsin for nearly 20 years in Congress, and he is now co-chairing President Obama's re- election campaign. Feingold sponsored legislation a decade ago with U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that regulated financing of political campaigns.

Feingold is critical of the recent Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United, which allows corporations to use their money to help or attack candidates.

“It is destroying the nature of our democracy, making anybody, even sort of rich people let along average people feel completely irrelevant," he said. "So, it’s essential that we overturn the decision. I believe the president will win, and if he wins, I’m hoping he gets a couple of appointments to the Supreme Court and they can turn this around.”

Feingold will be teaching law at Stanford University next year. He wouldn’t comment on whether he expects to have a role in Barack Obama’s administration should the president be re-elected in November.