[4] In March 2011, Rivard voted in favor of Governor Walker's budget fix bill that ended most of the bargaining rights of public unions in Wisconsin.
[18][19] Rivard later voted for Walker's 2011-2013 budget, which reduced funds to public schools, the state university system, technical colleges and local governments.
[7] Rivard became the subject of controversy and national media attention in October 2012 due to comments he made in December 2011 to The Chetek Alert, a small, northwestern Wisconsin newspaper.
[24] Rivard told the Journal Sentinel that the remarks were being taken out-of-context and misquoted, and that he had been repeating a warning from his father who had said that after agreeing to sex and becoming pregnant, some underage girls will claim it was not consensual.
[21][25] Three hours after the Journal Sentinel article was published, Rivard issued a statement calling rape a horrible act of violence that unfortunately often goes unreported.
[28] Following the media attention to the statements about rape, a number of GOP officials quickly withdrew their endorsements of Rivard, including vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Governor Scott Walker, US Senator Ron Johnson, former Governor Tommy Thompson, and State Representative Robin Vos, who is in charge of Assembly campaign efforts.
[30] However, he retained the support of several pro-life and business groups, and a county party rally including Rivard was held just two days after the firestorm of criticism began.
[30] Rivard has previously made strong statements: in 2012, he compared bureaucrats and politicians to cocaine addicts and in 2011, he called pro-union protestors "terrorists".
[4] Rivard opposes same-sex marriage, but believes there should be some provisions in the law to recognize gay and lesbian partnerships for the purposes of medical care and inheriting property.
[32] Rivard has said he first ran for public office because he was concerned for the future of his descendants and believed that a businessperson such as himself could better solve government budget problems due to his understanding of economics, business regulation and taxation.
[4] In the 2010 election, Rivard was endorsed by The Chetek Alert as a common sense candidate who was locally funded and not obligated to special interests.
[36] Wisconsin Public Radio reported that some voters in Rivard's district were unswayed by the rape comments and would be voting for or against him based on his platform.