The Racine County District Attorney’s Office has received a complaint and opened a criminal investigation into whether Democratic state Senate candidate Trevor Jung used paid public work time to campaign, The Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
Jung, Racine’s transit and mobility director and the Democratic nominee in the 21st Senate District, is running against Republican Jim Croft in the Nov. 3 general election for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Van Wanggaard.
The investigation follows a Heartland Post report that compared city employment records with Jung’s campaign activity. Jung recorded full regular-pay days on dates that coincided with campaign events, including a May 19 campaign kickoff, a May 5 fundraiser in Janesville, a Feb. 12 breakfast fundraiser in Franklin, a Jan. 21 meeting with the UAW Southeast Wisconsin CAP Council, and many other campaign appearances and posts spanning much of this year.
Wisconsin law can treat political activity on public time as misconduct in public office. Under Wis. Stat. § 946.12, using official time or public resources for campaign work can be charged as a Class I felony. The Racine County District Attorney’s Office
The City of Racine employee handbook also bars political activity on the job and political activity off the job that interferes with official duties, explicity barring “any form of political activity on the job.” Employees are also forbidden from doing political activity outside of work hours “to such an extent that it interferes with doing his/her/their job.”
Jung is a full-time salaried official, but status does not allow campaign work during hours when a public employee is expected to perform government duties. The report noted that similar allegations were treated as criminal in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County John Doe investigation tied to campaign work on public time, including a felony plea by former deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch.
Jung’s use of paid work time to campaign is far more extensive. On May 28th, for instance, he posted to his official campaign Facebook page about talking to voters in Greendale “about the issues that matter most to working families across Wisconsin” while his work records showed that he claimed to be working full days that entire week.
On July 13th, Jung posted on his official campaign page photos from a tour of a quarry that he said had taken place the week before. Again, his employment records showed he had claimed full days of work that entire week.
Jung did not respond to The Heartland Post’s request for comment at the time, but released a statement following our reporting denying that he was violating the law.
“I have not, do not, and will not campaign while on City time,” he said, noting that any campaign events he does during the work week are done over his lunch hour. “My campaign staff know that once that [lunch] hour is up, I’ll be unavailable until the working day is over.”
That is physically impossible, as Jung’s own Facebook posts him in Greendale and Franklin during workdays. Drive times alone to and from Racine would account for nearly an entire hour. The Racine County District Attorney’s Office will now interview witnesses and review documents and records to determine whether Jung was telling the truth about his whereabouts or if he committed felony misconduct in public office.
No charging decision has yet been made and it is unclear how long the investigation into Jung will take.
