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H 84°, L 66°Amid a platform stance of cutting unnecessary government spending, the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker spent more than $24,000 on meals since mid-2008, according to a recent Associated Press review.
Campaign bills for meals for Walker, his campaign staff and other individuals and food and drinks for fundraising events amounted to at least $24,500.
Walker announced his intention to run for governor in April 2009, while his main opponents, Republican Mark Neumann and Milwaukee Mayor and Democrat Tom Barrett, announced in July and November, respectively.
The AP reviewed campaign finance disclosure amounts from July 2008 through Dec. 1, 2009. Neumann’s campaign reported spending $2,400 on food and beverages for fundraisers in the last six months of 2009, while Barrett’s campaign reported spending around $10,000, according to the AP review.
The high campaign spending on meals stands in contrast to Walker’s campaign message of a “brown bag movement” to cut wasteful government spending.
On his website, Walker describes packing his own lunch for the office every day, stating, “We can’t afford to go out to lunch because Wisconsin’s government is out-to-lunch.”
“Whenever you’re doing a campaign, you have to set up an infrastructure statewide, especially when it comes to your network of supporters and fundraisers,” Jill Bader, spokesperson for Scott Walker, said in defense of the expenses. “It’s absolutely appropriate for us to be putting together an infrastructure to get Scott’s message out, and any claims to the contrary are completely ridiculous.”
Some groups have questioned the logic of such high campaign expenditures on food and drinks.
“The spending on meals seemed unusually high,” said Jay Heck, executive director for Common Cause Wisconsin. “Usually with campaigns, you try to save every available dollar to put toward the media, and most campaigns don’t spend all that much money on meetings and food.”
Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, agreed it is unusual to see staff expenses that include a lot of money on meals.
“That’s not a customary campaign expense,” McCabe said. “I think the bigger issue is how it squares with the image [Walker’s] campaign is trying to craft.”
However, Walker’s campaign maintains the spending represents a logical use of funds to finance the campaign.
“Scott’s been out on the road, spending nights away from home, and his brown bag lunch isn’t always going to keep along the way,” Bader said. “The fact that he might stop and have a sandwich at Subway is I think wholly understandable when you have the type of schedule Scott has.”
The campaign paid for Walker’s meals at Subway locations 15 times in a four-month span, according to the AP review.
“I know a lot of people in Mark’s campaign office are kind of jealous of the people in Scott’s campaign because they don’t get taken out to Ruth’s Chris for campaign meetings,” said Chris Lato, a spokesperson for Neumann.
The AP review also found the Walker campaign spent $2,182 for meeting expenses at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Middleton in October.
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Ha ha, what a joke of an article! Gillian, are you simply reprinting press releases from the WI DNC now? This is the best dirt you can find on Walker?
First of all, if it was a democrat, it’d be called “stimulus” spending to support the hard-hit restaurant industry. Second, who gives a crap, its Walker’s campaign money, not taxpayer money.
It’s also ridiculous to compare the numbers to Neumann and Barrett who have done about nothing so far in their campaigns.
Why don’t you write a story about how Walker and Barrett have spent TAX PAYER MONEY in the last 8 years?? That’d be too much work for you? I guess it easier to write articles about what Scott Walker eats for lunch.
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The State of Wisconsin is Billions of dollars in debt and approaching bankruptcy because of the irresponsibly profligate spending by progressive democrats…. and the best criticism of Scott Walker you can come up with is a 2000 dollar campaign tab for meetings from October?
Pathetic… I think you “Losh” it, Gilligan!