Will Gard move home to run for Congress?

The AppletonPost-Crescent reports:

MADISON — Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, is expected to officially announce his bid for the 8th Congressional District today.

Gard, 42, planned to announce his run on the dairy farm he grew up on in Lena.

“I wanted to kick it off where I started,” said Gard, who joins a field of candidates for the seat being vacated by Mark Green, R-Hobart, who is running for governor.

Presumably, going back to where he started also means moving his family from Sun Prairie, just outside of Madison, where they've been living and where their kids have been enrolled in school -- while Gard has continued to collect the full $88 per diem for every day he is in Madison. (Dane County residents get half that.)

Gard's Assembly district is in Shawano, Marinette and Oconto Counties, and his "voting address" has been in Peshtigo. But it's an open secret that he's been living in Dane County for years. Voters didn't seem to care; they liked having the powerful Speaker as their representative. But if he wins this seat, he'll be low on the Congressional totem pole, so that argument is gone for this race.