Vanessa Swales,Daniel BiceMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
A state Assembly candidate is pushing back on an audit that found his company had bilked millions of dollars in welfare funds to boost executive salaries and pay for cross-country trips while operating in the state of Kansas.
Andrew Hysell, 52, who is running as a Democratic candidate for the Madison-area 48th Assembly District, resolved the dispute with Kansas officials in 2019 with the state paying his firm $100,000 and terminating its state contract while he agreed not to sue anyone for defamation.
Asked what voters are to make of the matter, Hysell said they need to know that he made a career change as a result of it.
"What I tell them is that the reason I became a trial lawyer is (because) I saw what happens when unjust governmental and big business actions affect regular people," said Hysell, an attorney with the Madison firm Lawton Cates. "It's really hard to stand against somebody with so much power and so many resources."
Hysell was the director of a statewide literacy program for public schools, Reading Roadmap, that was also administered by Hysell's D.C.-based company, Hysell & Wagner LLC.
The early literacy program was launched in 2013 and received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, money from Kansas. It served roughly 10,000 students.
In 2017, an audit was carried out under former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's administration, which found the company had wrongly claimed and then was paid $2.3 million over a 23-month period between 2014 and 2015, according to reporting by local media. Brownback's administration never finalized the audit into Hysell & Wagner.
When Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took over in 2019, the Kansas Department of Children and Families reported additional concerns about Hysell's program, which included the use ofTANF funds to boost executive salaries (including Hysell's) and pay for 38 trips between Kansas, Washington, D.C., and San Diego between 2018 and 2019.
Their findings also reported "excessive payments" to company executives using the welfare dollars and a violation of the grant agreement when administrative costs surpassed 15% of grant costs.
At the time, Hysell threatened legal action, disputing the agency's allegations of financial wrongdoings. His company released a statement calling the audit "incomplete" and saying it did not contain accurate information.
"All these allegations were wrong," Hysell told the Journal Sentinel. "We responded in writing to every single issue raised."
In August, 2019, the State of Kansas cut ties with Hysell & Wagner in the joint resolution with the company.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that Hysell's annual salary would have been $192,500 in 2019, while his business partner Carol Hazen, who worked out of San Diego, had a contract salary of $150,000. The company employed about 60 full-time workers and more than 1,000 part-time staff.
Records show Hysell made donations to two top Kansas officials over the years, including $2,250 to former Acting Gov. Jeff Colyer and $100 to Kelly, the current governor. Colyer is a Republican, and Kelly a Democrat.
Hysell & Wagner shut down in 2020, according to Hysell. He said the company has since transferred everything to a nonprofit, also called Reading Roadmap, that now operates out of Mississippi. His company's website says it provides programming for five public schools in the state. Hysell told the Journal Sentinel he still works with the nonprofit.
"This program is an amazing program that we've had evaluated by outside evaluators and it's proven to be very promising, and we're super excited because we believe other school districts can use it," Hysell said. "We want them to use this model for free because we want them to help more kids with existing after-school programs."
He added: "That's why I'm still involved in this. I really, really care about it."
Since 2021, he has worked as a trial lawyer in Madison and was one of the lawyers who filed an emergency petition with the state Supreme Court to try to protect Justice Janet Protasiewicz from being impeached by state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos last year. The Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in September.
Hysell will face former Sun Prairie Common Council President William "Bill" Connors, Dane County Board Supervisor Rick Rose, as well as political newcomers Goodwill Obieze and Avery Renk in the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Hysell's Democratic challengers issued a joint statement earlier in the week sharing their concerns about Hysell previous activities after receiving a flood of messages from voters in the district.
"Based on their concerns, we have come to agree that Andrew Hysell is not the progressive Democrat that the people of Assembly District 48 deserve as their representative," the statement said. "We don’t believe he represents the shared values of the people of our District. We understand voting is a personal choice and respect the decision made by every voter, but we feel it is important for voters to know this record."
The winner will face Lisa Rubrich, the lone Republican candidate, in the general election race on Nov. 5.
Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or atvswales@gannett.com. Follow her on X@Vanessa_Swales. Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 ordbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at@DanielBiceor on Facebook atfb.me/daniel.bice.
