Randy Hopper, one of the 8 Republican State Senators likely to face a recall by the summer, has no shortage of problems. Worse, he can’t keep his stories straight. The Senator, who won his 2008 Senate election by only 163 votes, agreed last week to stripping collective bargaining rights from public employees. At the time of his election and even while he served in the Senate, public employees had little reason to believe that Hopper would do such a thing. That’s evidenced by his show of support at a lobby day for AFSCME last year, even wearing an AFSCME T-shirt. This picture will be a feature of his recall election should he decide to fight it out.

Then there’s this persistent residency question. Hopper, as we all now know, has separated from his wife and spends most of his time with his 25 year-old staffer/mistress in Madison. Living outside his district, which includes Fond du Lac and the northeastern part of the state, would violate the law, and indeed a complaint has been filed challenging Hopper’s residency. A Hopper staffer claims that the Senator lives in an apartment in his district. However, via Phoenix Woman, the Capitol Times checked out the address:

[Hopper policy advisor Matt] Phillips provided The Capital Times with the address where Hopper is living in Fond du Lac on the condition the address would not be made public. He and Rebecca Hogan, Hopper’s chief of staff, cited ongoing threats against Hopper and his family as the reason.

According to the online Fond du Lac County property tax map, the address is not an apartment, as Phillips said, but a roughly $600,000 home owned by a high-ranking employee of Hopper’s media company, Mountain Dog Media.

So there’s that.

And inside that lie is another potential lie, the one about ongoing threats against his family. Because the last time Hopper used that one, it was revealed as bogus.

Hopper’s dishonesty has taken on Mark Kirk-like proportions. Kirk was able to barely overcome those missteps, but only because of a huge national wave. Hopper won’t be so lucky; in fact, the enthusiasm gap will in all likelihood work strongly against him. No wonder he may resign rather than face the voters again.