Taxpayers cover costs for Michael Gableman to headline Republican event

Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Michael Gableman, the former state Supreme Court justice who led the GOP review of the 2020 election, delivers a report during an informational hearing of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at the Capitol in Madison.

MADISON – Newly released records show taxpayers picked up the cost of sending attorney Michael Gableman to address a Republican Party county chapter, where he promoted his partisan review of the 2020 election and called on one of his loudest critics to resign from office.   

The former Supreme Court justice billed taxpayers $234 for roundtrip travel from his office in Brookfield to the Chippewa County Republican Party event. An aide to a top Republican said Saturday officials would make Gableman pay the state back. 

Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, expressed amazement at the situation.

“It seems to me that the Assembly ought to be taking a much closer look at the invoices and similar requests for payment that Mr. Gableman keeps submitting because they certainly don’t appear to comport with the ordinary rules for state employees and that should concern the Assembly,” she said. “It appears there isn’t a lot of oversight of his submissions.”

More:'I have no idea': Vos attorney did not monitor Michael Gableman's compliance with open records law in his election review

The payment showed up in invoices obtained Friday under the state’s open records by the liberal group American Oversight.

Those records, combined with earlier ones released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and others, show Gableman’s review of the 2020 election has cost taxpayers $519,000 so far.

Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, and his victory was confirmed by recounts and upheld by state and federal courts. Independent reviews have found no signs of significant fraud.

Assembly Republicans demanded a deeper look into how the election was conducted and gave Gableman a budget of $676,000. On Tuesday, he released a report that reiterated criticisms of the election Republicans have been raising for more than a year.

He urged lawmakers to consider revoking the state’s 10 electoral votes for Biden — a notion that nonpartisan attorneys for the Legislature and legal scholars have called legally impossible.

More:There's no legal way to decertify the 2020 election, but the Gableman report is forcing Republican candidates to confront the question

State Sen. Kathleen Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, speaks during a media briefing on growing threats to election professionals in Wisconsin Monday in Madison. Bernier, the majority caucus vice chair, urged members of her own party to halt their attempts to discredit the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission they created. And she called on former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to finish his partisan review of the election soon, saying the protracted process is harming Republicans.

Gableman has been attending Republican events to build support among conservatives for his work. On Dec. 20, he addressed the Chippewa County party to call for the resignation of state Sen. Kathy Bernier, a Lake Hallie Republican who has criticized Gableman’s work as a charade.

Taxpayers are not supposed to cover costs for political work. An aide to Gableman did not say why Gableman billed the state for his travel to Chippewa Falls.

More:A who's who guide to the Republican review of Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, said days before Gableman made the trip that he would have to go "during his off time."

"I want him to focus most of his time on investigations, right? But if he wants to go at night, you know, during his off time and speak to these groups, more power to him," Vos said in an interview six days before Gableman went to Chippewa Falls.

Two months later, Assembly Chief Clerk Ted Blazel's office cut a check for Gableman’s expenses.

In response to questions about why the state paid the expense, Vos spokeswoman Angela Joyce said by email Saturday that Gableman's handwritten invoice for mileage reimbursement was not clear. Gableman provided the date and destination of his trip to Blazel, and the purpose of his trip was reported at the time by the Journal Sentinel.

Joyce said Gableman would have to pay the money back but didn't say when that would happen. 

It’s the second time taxpayers covered Gableman’s travel costs after Vos suggested they wouldn’t.

Vos said Gableman would have to pay his own way in August to visit a partisan review of ballots in Arizona and attend a conspiracy-filled forum hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in South Dakota. Taxpayers later paid more than $2,700 to cover those costs for Gableman and others.

Vos said in December he would likely make Gableman pay the state back for those costs.

The latest records do not show Gableman giving money back and Joyce did not say Saturday whether that had happened. 

More:A Republican base focused on the 2020 election turns on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.