More Controversy Discovered Regarding Scott Suder and United Sportsmen Group
Monday, September 30th, 2013 -- 8:20 AM
-The lobbyist for a self-described sportsmen group offered free fishing excursions to then-Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder just days before an affiliate of the group secured a now-canceled $500,000 grant from the state.According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal, Suder went on the Lake Michigan outing with the head of the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin in August, about 2.5 months after he engineered money for the grant into the state budget. Also scheduled to be on the Aug. 22-23 trip were a lobbyist and a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. The former NRA lobbyist, Darren LaSorte, is also a board member of the foundation affiliated with United Sportsmen.
Suder said he paid his own way on the trip. But a set of emails released by Suder under the state's open records law make plain the close ties between Suder, United Sportsmen, the National Rifle Association and the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
The trip came a week before the United Sportsmen Foundation won a $500,000, two-year grant from the state to promote fishing and hunting. In May and June, Suder had worked with other GOP lawmakers to insert a provision into the state budget creating a grant so narrowly tailored that the United Sportsmen Foundation was all but assured of receiving it. The politically active group has scant experience with the kind of training called for in the grant.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.