Roger Rivard

Roger Rivard (born August 27, 1952) is a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing northwest Wisconsin's 75th Assembly District from January 3, 2011, to January 3, 2013.

A lifelong resident of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Rivard was the first Republican to hold the office in 32 years.

As a freshman lawmaker, he co-sponsored legislation to allow the hunting of gray wolves and to reform the oversight of mining.

His proposal to increase the number of rural economic development zones was passed into law; Rivard has said the legislation has brought 600 jobs to the state.

He received his diploma from Rice Lake High School in 1970 and attended the Barron County branch campus of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

He married and started his first business at age 19.

He began selling recreational vehicles, owning and operating Rivard's Campers.

Before entering politics, he was working as a real estate sales agent, broker and developer.

He is a member of the Diocese of Superior Pastoral Council.

Previously, he was president of the Rice Lake Chamber of Commerce, state director of the Wisconsin Realtors Association and grand knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Rivard represented the 75th Assembly District which includes most of Barron County, the southern third of Washburn County and three townships in Polk County.

Elected in November 2010 to fill a seat that had been occupied by Democrats for the previous 32 years, Rivard became one of 27 first-term Assembly Republicans; a group that comprised more than 40 percent of the new Republican majority.

Shortly after the election, Rivard told the Associated Press, "We understand that we've got the power in numbers but .... [w]e're not going to go down there and push everybody around. That would be foolishness. But we are going to hold everyone's feet to the fire and control government spending."

Rivard was given the following Assembly committee assignments: Natural Resources (vice chairperson); Housing; Rural Economic Development and Rural Affairs.

As a freshman lawmaker, Rivard co-sponsored legislation to allow the public to hunt and trap gray wolves in Wisconsin.

The bill was supported by several hunting groups, but opposed by wolf scientists who claimed it went too far and would result in a wolf population reduction from as many as 1,000 animals to as few as 350.

Rivard disagreed with the numbers estimates and said the purpose of the bill was to secure the wolves' future in Wisconsin.

He also co-sponsored and helped introduce legislation to reform mining laws, including one law that would streamline the permitting process for iron mining that he said would create thousands of jobs and bring billions in economic activity to northern Wisconsin.

The bill, which was criticized as weakening state mining regulations and as possibly authored by a mining corporation, passed the Assembly but was voted down by the Senate.

Four months into his tenure, Rivard's first bill—to increase the number of rural economic development zones—passed the Assembly, and soon passed the Senate.

He also voted in favor of Governor Scott Walker's budget fix, which limited the collective bargaining rights of public workers, and in favor of the Governor's 2011-2013 budget bill, which reduced funding for education in order to balance the budget.

In March 2011, Rivard voted in favor of Governor Walker's budget fix bill that ended most of the bargaining rights of public unions in Wisconsin.

For his vote, he reportedly was threatened with boycotts of his real estate business, which he called "government by intimidation".

Rivard later voted for Walker's 2011-2013 budget, which reduced funds to public schools, the state university system, technical colleges and local governments.

Regarding his votes in support of the budget bills, Rivard said, "I knew it was going to be rough, because - apparently - we went down this (spending) road for many, many years and they didn't have the courage to do it".

The district attorney who prosecuted the case involving the two high school students clarified that the sex was not consensual and also criticized Rivard's December 2011 remarks that too many people were being required to register as sex offenders.

Following the media attention to the statements about rape, a number of GOP officials quickly withdrew their endorsements of Rivard, including vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Governor Scott Walker, US Senator Ron Johnson, former Governor Tommy Thompson, and State Representative Robin Vos, who is in charge of Assembly campaign efforts.

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, the Tavern League of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, and the Wisconsin Grocers Association also rescinded their endorsements of Rivard.

Prior to the 2012 election, Rivard received national media attention for comments he made about a sexual assault case involving a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old who lived in his district.

He subsequently lost his 2012 bid for reelection.

Rivard was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and is one of the seven children of Eileen Rivard, a schoolteacher, and Wilfred Rivard, the owner and operator of Rivard's Dairy Bar.

Beginning at a young age, Roger worked in the family business.

He has said the new law has resulted in an aircraft plant moving to Superior, Wisconsin, bringing 600 jobs to the state and he announced on October 10, 2012, that a company soon would be moving between 75 and 80 jobs back from China to Rice Lake.

Rivard became the subject of controversy and national media attention in October 2012 due to comments he made in December 2011 to The Chetek Alert, a small, northwestern Wisconsin newspaper.

In the interview, Rivard discussed the case of a local high school senior who was being prosecuted for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old.

He said he was considering initiating a Romeo and Juliet bill in the Assembly to protect teenage couples from prosecution for statutory rape.

The newspaper reported that, "When he was a teenager, Rivard's dad offered a warning. 'Some girls rape easy' ... meaning they might give in and change their minds later, or someone might change their minds for them."

The Chetek Alert article came to wider public notice after a Democratic Party operative discovered it during election season—resulting in a mention in WisPolitics on October 5, and an article in the state's largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on October 10.

Rivard told the Journal Sentinel that the remarks were being taken out-of-context and misquoted, and that he had been repeating a warning from his father who had said that after agreeing to sex and becoming pregnant, some underage girls will claim it was not consensual.

Three hours after the Journal Sentinel article was published, Rivard issued a statement calling rape a horrible act of violence that unfortunately often goes unreported.