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Lobbyist, lawmaker engage in war of words over prevailing wage
Wisconsin Watchdog ^ | 7-9-15 | M. D. Kittle

Posted on 07/09/2015 5:30:07 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

MADISON, Wisconsin — Before prevailing wage reform supporters celebrated a big win in the state Senate on Tuesday, the prevailing war of words between a state lawmaker and a key lobbyist heated up.

In a letter obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog, former Republican Assembly speaker and prevailing wage defender John Gard informs state Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, he wants to “set the record straight” about an accusatory email Gannon sent members of the media and others last week.

A story in Right Wisconsin suggests Gard had been given “privileged access” to Republican members of the Legislature before the Assembly Republican caucus. The publication obtained the email from Gannon.

In Gard’s letter, hand-delivered Tuesday morning to legislative offices, Gard asserts he was not in the Legislature’s G.A.R room last week, as Gannon insisted, nor has he been there in a “long, long time.”

“(A)nd I wasn’t given some sort of privileged access to state representatives,” Gard writes. “I’m not even sure what you are talking about.”

Gard’s letter arrived as the Senate was set to debate a budget amendment that would repeal prevailing wages for all public construction projects at local governments, technical colleges, schools and municipal utilities. State projects would still be subject to prevailing wage. The Senate later in the afternoon narrowly (17-16) passed a motion adding the amendment, authored by Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, to the state budget bill. Then, just before midnight, the Senate passed the budget on an 18-15 vote. Sen. Robert Cowles was the only Republican to cross over and vote with Democrats in opposing the two-year spending plan.

“I’m sure you could not find any truthful person to corroborate your story,” Gard writes in his letter.

Wisconsin Watchdog, however, heard from multiple legislative sources who said Gard definitely was at the Capitol last week on the day in question. They said he was in attendance at the open portion of the Assembly Republicans’ caucus and that Gard was there to make nervous the Republican lawmakers most in peril of losing their seats in next year’s election.

Gard did not return multiple calls from Wisconsin Watchdog seeking comment. Neither did Gannon.

The two pointed communications underscore the kind of political heat prevailing wage reform has drawn, and the climate has only gotten hotter in recent days as conservatives have pushed reluctant leadership and vulnerable Republicans to plod ahead with the free-market measure.

Gannon, according to Right Wisconsin, described Gard as the “appointed and highly compensated pimp” for the state road builders lobby. Gard’s lobbying firm, Gard Business Group, has spent a lot of time and other people’s money trying to protect a law that has, since the Great Depression, artificially bolstered wages on government construction projects. The prevailing wage law sets pay for public construction projects comparable to wages on private-sector building projects in a region, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more per year.

The firm represents the interests of Operating Engineers Local 139, a Wisconsin trade union that primarily represents construction equipment operators, among other prevailing wage proponents.

Gannon accused Gard of an “abusive act,” according to the email, and said Gard’s lobbying activities are the “kind of garbage behavior that makes politicians of all stripes get a certain level of stink on them.”

Gard did not care for Gannon’s characterization.

“..(Y)our reckless and blatant dishonesty in this case is astonishing,” Gard writes in his letter. “I do not expect that you care about the decision you made to impugn me and your actions demonstrate that your criticism about my presence and work was either deliberate and dishonest, totally fabricated or done to maliciously bring harm, hoping no one would question the actual truth and facts.”

Gard does know his way around the Legislature. The lobbyist represented 89th Assembly District for 20 years, and he served as speaker between 2003 and 2007.

He tells Gannon he has been “proud to represent the operating engineers for a number of years” and that he “values their friendship and the work these hard-working men and women do every day and night across Wisconsin.”

He also values their business.

It’s not known how much the union has paid Gard thus far in the 2015-16 legislative session for his exhaustive lobbying efforts because the organization has yet to file a lobbying report with the state Government Accountability Board. But the Operating Engineers paid Gard’s firm $5,000 in the 2013-14 session.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: jongard; lobbyist; prevailingwage; roadbuilders

OUCH: Rep. Bob Gannon calls lobbyist John Gard a “highly compensated pimp” for Wisconsin’s road builders. Gard fired back with a letter Tuesday blasting Gannon’s ‘reckless and blatant dishonesty.’

1 posted on 07/09/2015 5:30:07 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic; onyx; Hunton Peck; Diana in Wisconsin; P from Sheb; Shady; DonkeyBonker; ...

It was machinations between Jon Gard, Mark Green, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Tommy Thompson that gave us the second term of Jim Doyle as Governor. (They prevented Scott Walker from running for governor in 2007.) Gard wanted to be elected to Congress, Green wanted to be Governor, Sensenbrenner and Thompson were the king makers.

FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.


2 posted on 07/09/2015 5:35:38 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Wooo-Hooo! Pistols At Dawn? I’m loving the in-fighting.

It’s really showing us who’s who in our local government and will make voting next time around all the easier.


3 posted on 07/09/2015 6:15:44 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

We’re long past needing a min wage. Do away with it and let the market decide.


4 posted on 07/09/2015 8:28:03 PM PDT by bgill ( CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
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