Yee Leng Xiong wants Wisconsin voters to promote him to State Treasurer on Tuesday. He barely shows up for the job he already has.
Xiong, the Democratic nominee against Republican Treasurer John Leiber, represents District 19 on the Marathon County Board. The board’s 2026 minutes show he missed seven of the 19 meetings held this year, or 37 percent. Three were excused. Four were flat absences: June 18, July 23, July 28, and August 20. He also called in twice more over WebEx.
That last part matters. Supervisors can join board meetings remotely, and Xiong knows it because he has. A supervisor who can join a meeting from his couch has no excuse for missing more than a third of them.
Then came October 1.
That day the board held a special meeting on the Hub City Wind Farm, Alliant Energy’s proposed 150-megawatt project of 28 to 38 turbines across the towns of Day, McMillan, Eau Pleine, Cleveland, Green Valley and Brighton. Residents in those towns have spent months raising alarms about setbacks, property values, decommissioning, and health. Supervisors voted 24-7 to give Alliant until November 1 to put its commitments in writing. It was one of the most important votes the board has taken all year. Seven supervisors were absent or excused.
Xiong was one of them. Minutes for the meeting have not been posted, but a county board member with the attendance records told The Heartland Post that Xiong was marked absent and not excused. The Marathon County Clerk’s office keeps the same record.
So where was he? His campaign’s own paperwork answers that.
Xiong’s pre-election campaign finance report, filed Monday, October 26, lists these expenses:
- September 29: $990 to Airbnb, filed as “Candidate Expense – Travel”
- September 30: $461.66 to Hanoi Pho in Elk Grove, California, filed as “Fundraiser – Food & Beverage”
- October 2: $200.82 to The Hotel Oceanside in Oceanside, California, filed as “Candidate Expense – Travel”
- October 4: $215 to Chicago Midway Airport Parking, filed as “Candidate Expense – Travel”
The parking bill shows how long he was gone. Daily garage parking at Midway costs $43, and drivers pay when they leave. Five days at that rate comes to exactly $215. The records show a car at Midway from about September 30 until October 4, a fundraiser tab in the Sacramento suburbs on September 30, and a hotel on the Southern California coast on October 2. October 1 falls right in the middle.
Put plainly, Xiong skipped a vote on a wind farm in his own county to raise money for himself in California.
Why is a candidate for Wisconsin State Treasurer fundraising in California at all? The treasurer’s core job is guarding Wisconsin’s school trust fund. Californians don’t vote here, and they don’t pay Marathon County property taxes.
The trip didn’t bring in much, either. The same report lists $3,050 from seven donors in Elk Grove and Sacramento dated September 30 through October 3. The California trip expenses on that report (Airbnb, restaurant, hotel, and parking) add up to $1,867.48. That leaves about $1,180, and that is before a single plane ticket.
Xiong sells himself as a watchdog. He has promised to “hold elected officials and government agencies to the same standards they expect from schools and nonprofits.” Anyone in a school or nonprofit who skipped 37 percent of their meetings would be out of a job. Voters in District 19 expected him to show up. Seven times this year, eight counting October 1, he didn’t.
Xiong already holds two local offices, on the county board and the D.C. Everest school board. Now he wants a statewide one. His record says he can’t keep up with his current job.
Leiber has run the treasurer’s office with no staff and kept school fund payouts rising every year he’s been there. Xiong couldn’t make it to a county board meeting he could have joined from his phone. Voters have an easy choice on November 3.
Xiong’s 2026 County Board attendance
- January 22: Present
- January 27: Present
- February 19: Excused
- March 19: WebEx
- March 24: Present
- April 21: Present
- April 28: Present
- May 21: Excused
- May 26: Present
- June 18: Absent
- June 23: Present
- July 23: Absent
- July 28: Absent
- August 20: Absent
- August 25: WebEx
- September 17: Excused
- October 1: No minutes posted (absent, not excused, per a board member with the records)
- October 15: No minutes posted
- October 20: No minutes posted
Totals from posted minutes: 19 meetings, 7 missed (37 percent), 2 by WebEx, 7 in person. Counting October 1, 8 missed.
