Washington, D.C. – Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has had 10 times more hours of security than his predecessor, on the taxpayers’ dime.
As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in his first three years as the state’s No. 2, Barnes has averaged more than 13½ hours of security protection a day — including weekdays, weekends and holidays — at a daily cost to the state of $660 for patrol officers’ wages.
For instance, the state provided 54 hours of security to Barnes at the Chicago Marathon, which Barnes decided to run in. It cost nearly $2,300 in state salaries over three days in October 2021, not including lodging or mileage. Two weeks later, Barnes racked up 10 hours of security costs while attending a one-hour Sunday fundraiser for his Senate campaign.
The kicker, besides abusing the state’s security detail for his own personal (and campaign) uses?
He co-sponsored a bill in 2015 related to travel expenses for state officials running for office. When Scott Walker (R-WI) was running for president, Mandela Barnes and other Democrats co-sponsored a bill that said an elected state official who is considering running for federal office must submit monthly statements identifying the official’s travel expenses from the previous month, including security costs and staff expenses. Then that elected state official would have to reimburse the state for all campaign travel-related expenses within 30 days of submitting the report.
Barnes is fortunate that the bill never became law because the cost of providing security to Barnes from Jan. 1, 2021, to Nov. 20, 2021, exceeded $206,000. The figure for the first four months after he got into the Senate race was $113,330.
Statement from NRSC Spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow: “This abuse of the state’s security on the taxpayers’ dime is rich coming from Barnes who has supported groups, individuals, and policies to defund the police. Not to mention, Barnes co-sponsored a bill to stop state officials from doing just that. But what do you expect from a phony, hypocrite politician like Barnes?”
