The Republican primary challenger to Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbold is accusing Reinbold, a self-proclaimed conservative leader, of being hypocritical for accepting per diem payments to cover her legislative expenses two years ago while she was on vacation in Europe.
Crystal Kennedy, a former Anchorage School Board member now running for the Legislature, issued a statement Thursday calling on Reinbold to reimburse the state for the four days of per diem she received while on vacation, which totaled $948.
Reinbold, like the 59 other members of the Alaska Legislature, received the payments automatically for the last four days of the extended 2014 session, said Jessica Geary, the Legislature's finance manager.
Reinbold left the session early for a planned trip to Croatia, according to former reporter Amanda Coyne's defunct political blog.
Reinbold would have had to expressly decline the payments to keep from receiving them, Geary said.
Reinbold calls herself a "bold conservative leader" on her campaign website.
But she's been a caucus of one. She was kicked out of the Republican-led House majority last year for voting against the budget — a decision she attributed to the fact that proposed cuts of about 5 percent weren't deep enough.
Reinbold didn't answer a phone call Thursday morning, but she responded to a text message by writing that her absence in 2014 was excused and that Kennedy's attack was a "last-minute smear campaign that is diverting attention from the critical issues facing Alaska."
"I was not aware till today I may have inadvertently received per diem during these few days of extended session," Reinbold wrote.
She added she was still paying rent in Juneau at the end of the 2014 session, but then seemed to acknowledge the per diem payments weren't merited.
"If there are any discrepancies for the few days of extended session in 2014 regarding my per diem, I will reimburse the state," she wrote.
Reinbold is the second lawmaker to draw attention this year for collecting per diem while on vacation in Europe. Retiring Anchorage Republican Sen. Lesil McGuire claimed payments in June for a week that included days she spent vacationing in Germany with her son and ex-husband Tom Anderson.
Kennedy appears to be picking up support from the Republican establishment in Eagle River, where Sen. Anna MacKinnon and Rep. Dan Saddler have endorsed her, according to a mass email that Kennedy has sent.