At Watchdog Milwaukee we like to be the ones doing the biting but for once the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is firing away at the vicious and snarling Republican Leader in the Assembly, John Gard.

Gard has been squirreling away per diem cash for his long ride home to Peshtigo for over twenty years but it now looks like Gard actually lives just 12 miles away from the Capitol.

We salute the DPW for having some teeth. Now let’s see if our feckless media whose lips are securely fastened to conservative interests butts has any intention of covering this story.

Monday, December 19, 2005

CONTACT: Jessica Erickson, Communications Director, 608-260-2406
jessicae@wisdems.org

Democrats Agree With Gard:

8th CD Beware of Carpetbaggers!

Dane County Homeowner’s Money Pitch Raises ‘Important Issues’

MADISON – Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Michael Murphy said today that a recent fundraising mailing by Dane County resident and homeowner John Gard alleging “outsider” influence in the 8th Congressional District race in northeast Wisconsin raises “important issues about the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars Gard has racked up in outstate per diem while living in Dane County.”

“John Gard’s breathless plea for campaign cash conveniently neglects to mention that Gard and his family live in a house in Dane County he bought back in the 1990s,” Murphy said. “John Gard should explain why he took double the per diem he was entitled to while living in Dane County.”

State legislators who reside outside of Dane County are entitled to claim $88 a day in per diem for the days they work in the Capitol, while legislators who live in Dane County are eligible for half that amount. From 2002 to 2004 alone, Gard claimed 375 days at the $88 rate for a total windfall of $32,636 – despite owning a home in Sun Prairie purchased in 1999. For just those three years, taxpayers would have saved over $16,000 if Gard had taken the Dane County per diem rate. Gard has been in the Legislature since 1987, nearly 20 years.

On his state-paid website, Gard claims a Peshtigo voting address that is 180 miles from the Capitol, while his Dane County home is just 12 miles from the Capitol.

“I have no doubt that my friend John Gard has a shoebox full of gas receipts showing all the times he had to purchase gas while traveling back and forth from Peshtigo to Madison,” Murphy said. “Or maybe he has the receipts stuffed in that carpet-lined travel bag he uses when he isn’t spending the night at his Dane County home.”

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