Senate candidate Leah Vukmir racked up legal bills for taxpayers
MADISON - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir is being hit in an ad over legal bills in an open records case that cost state taxpayers $15,000.
The 2014 legal bill is featured in a campaign ad run by a conservative group against Vukmir, a state senator from Brookfield.
Vukmir handled the situation differently than state Rep. Dale Kooyenga, who recently paid his $30,000 tab himself after initially saying he would have taxpayers pick it up.
(Kooyenga, a Brookfield Republican now running for Vukmir's state Senate seat, reached a settlement in his case after he was sued for removing a sign from the state Capitol that a protester had permission to display.)
RELATED:State to pay $15,000 in settlement of suit against Vukmir
Vukmir’s case has resurfaced in an ad the conservative Club for Growth began running against her last month. Vukmir faces Delafield businessman Kevin Nicholson in the Aug. 14 Republican primary to determine who will take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November.
“Vukmir claimed the open records law didn’t apply to her, got sued, lost and cost taxpayers $15,000 in legal fees,” says the ad, which labels Vukmir “just a typical politician.”
Aides to Vukmir didn’t say this week why she left her bill to be paid by taxpayers.
The liberal Center for Media and Democracy asked for records from Vukmir in 2013 regarding her work for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that works with corporations to draft bills that can be introduced in legislatures around the country.
Vukmir turned over a small number of records and the Center for Media and Democracy sued, contending she had held back some documents she was required to release. Vukmir initially argued she couldn’t be sued during the two-year-long legislative session, but ultimately settled with the center, agreeing to release more records and have the state pay $12,500 in legal fees and $2,500 in damages.
Democrats have also racked up legal bills for taxpayers in open records cases.
This May, Rep. Jonathan Brostoff (D-Milwaukee) left taxpayers with a legal bill of about $2,000 to cover the costs of a conservative group that sued him for trying to charge large sums for copies of his emails.
And in 2014, taxpayers had to pay more than $230,000 in legal expenses for a conservative group that sued state Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) for blacking out the names of people who contacted him in copies of his emails he provided the group.