Speaker Robin Vos took free trip to London with lobbyists and leaders from other states

MADISON - The Wisconsin Assembly's top leader was among a group of lawmakers from several states who took a free trip with lobbyists to London — an August excursion that contributed to the resignation Tuesday of his counterpart in Ohio.

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) defended taking the free trip and said he followed state ethics laws in accepting it. 

Cliff Rosenberger, the speaker of the Ohio House, said this week he was stepping down amid an FBI investigation that is reportedly looking at the four-day trip to England and other issues.

Vos said he had not been contacted by the FBI or other authorities or discussed any legislation with lobbyists on the trip, either during it or afterward.

Vos was in the news this week because he is considering running to replace U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville, who decided not to seek re-election this fall.

Two out-of-state lobbyists for title lender LoanMax, Steve Dimon and Leslie Gaines, went on the London trip, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

LoanMax has 16 locations around Wisconsin, according to its website. Its parent company, Select Management Resources, is registered to lobby in Wisconsin, but with different lobbyists. 

In the past, Vos has sponsored measures to loosen state regulations for payday and title loans. 

Vos, an admirer of the British leader Winston Churchill, said it was reasonable for him as a state official to travel to England to learn about Churchill and global trade, even if lobbyists were there with him.

"It's all an opportunity to learn," Vos said. "I think it's got a lot of value to it."

The Aug. 28-31 London trip was paid for by the conservative GOPAC Education Fund, one of a range of groups that help pay for educational conferences for state lawmakers, from the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures to the liberal State Innovation Network and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Though such trips are relatively common, a choice international destination like London isn't the norm.

The Enquirer reported that the title loan industry is fighting legislation in Ohio that would restrict those businesses. When the newspaper asked Dimon, the lobbyist, if the FBI had asked him about the London trip, he responded,  "You should ask the FBI."

An official with Select Management did not return a phone call and email Thursday. 

Critics of the title loan industry say it offers the promise of easy credit but can trap consumers in a cycle of debt and lead to the loss of their vehicle, hurting their ability to get to their job. Supporters of looser regulation such as Vos say that the industry can help consumers with poor credit and shouldn't be so tightly regulated that it can't operate in Wisconsin. 

Hana Callaghan, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California, said lawmakers have to think carefully about how the public will perceive such trips.

“Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it's ethical,” said Callaghan, who said she was speaking generally and not about the specific trip Vos took.

“The trip, for example, if it’s being sponsored by lobbyists and it appears there is an attempt to influence legislation, then that raises a red flag,” she said.

Such trips are regularly disclosed on state ethics forms, but the ones for 2017 are not yet due for Wisconsin officials. 

State ethics laws generally prohibit legislators from accepting valuable gifts but do allow them to accept travel expenses to go to conferences about official business, said David Buerger, staff attorney for the Wisconsin Ethics Commission. But even when on official business, state leaders "should be wary of accepting anything beyond the actual and reasonable costs incurred on behalf of the state," he said by email. 

"While accepting a hotel room for the length of a trip to a conference may be OK, acceptance of tickets to a sporting event while in town would generally not be permitted," Buerger said. 

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Also on the trip was former lawmaker and GOP fundraiser Michelle Litjens, who at the time was Vos' fiancée and is now his wife. GOPAC did not cover Litjens' costs, Vos said. 

GOPAC Executive Director Jessica Curtis said her group urges elected officials to consult their state's ethics and campaign laws before accepting such trips. Curtis declined to disclose the cost of covering the trip for Vos or the donors who had helped pay for it, saying only that donors could not require that scholarships go to a particular lawmaker.

"The GOPAC Education Fund’s Institute for Leadership Development sought to educate participants on U.S./U.K. trade opportunities, foster the exchange of ideas with members of Parliament and facilitate the study of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill," Curtis said. 

GOPAC describes its mission as backing smaller government and "advancing free market conservativism."

From 2014 to 2016, Vos had more than $44,000 in expenses paid by outside groups, according to his ethics filings with the state. More than half the costs — $26,000 — were paid by the nonpartisan State Legislative Leaders Foundation. About $11,300 was paid by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ideological and political groups paid smaller amounts toward his expenses over those three years: about $2,000 from the Jobs First Coalition, which helps elect Republicans to the Wisconsin Legislature; about $2,000 from the American Legislative Exchange Conference; and $750 from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbying group.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the FBI is investigating Rosenberger for the Ohio Republican's use of a donor's condo, his worldwide travel often funded by others and other matters.

Rosenberger said Tuesday he was confident he would be vindicated but that he was stepping down May 1 because the matter would demand so much of his time and could take months or years to resolve. 

Among the travel being investigated, according to the Enquirer, is the London trip that included Vos, Rosenberger and GOP leaders from other states. No other Wisconsin leaders were on the trip, Curtis said. 

During the trip, the group met Celia Sandys, Churchill's granddaughter. Vos said he sat next to Sandys at a meal, calling her a "delightful woman" who enjoyed sharing her grandfather's legacy.

Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.