WI-7: In a recent campaign ad, Democrat Julie Lassa (more here) said she would “fight to cut Congress’ pay by 10 percent until they lower unemployment:”

Her GOP challenger (and former MTV Real World contestant) Sean Duffy, called “bull,” and released the following statement accusing Lassa of accepting a salary increase as a state senator:

While some state lawmakers refused the pay raise given state budget constraints and the massive jobs losses across Wisconsin, Lassa, a 12-year lawmaker, took the $2,530 raise, while the state was hemorrhaging more than 100,000 jobs. Today, Lassa proposed cutting congressional salaries until additional jobs are created – a shocking move given her record of doing the exact opposite.

PolitiFact Wisconsin looked into that claim, calling it “half true:”

The Duffy campaign is partially right: Lassa took the pay raise — for about 13 months. But long before they launched the attack and before she announced her congressional campaign, Lassa had already started to give some back. With her approach, she will give 48.41 percent of her raise back, or about half. That’s where we rate Duffy’s statement as well: Half True.

First of all, that seems like a rather watered down assessment. Duffy’s campaign just claimed Lassa took a pay raise — which she did. Seems a bit unnecessary to quibble over the length of that pay increase. But here’s the interesting part (emphasis added):

In February of 2010, three months before she announced her congressional bid, Lassa notified Marchant she wanted to take lesser pay. By law, legislators can’t simply receive a smaller paycheck; they need to use another mechanism to return money they don’t want. Lassa is using furlough days that extend through June 2011.

“By law, legislators can’t simply receive a smaller paycheck.” Pretty much sums up everything wrong with politics in one sentence. As for Lassa — taking unpaid leave in order to pay back a raise you voted for yourself, but later decided you didn’t want? How noble. Three months before announcing a run for congress? How convenient.