In a sharp escalation of the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, Mandela Barnes’ campaign has called on rival Sara Rodriguez to drop out, citing “gross mismanagement” of her campaign finances and questioning her readiness to lead the state.
The controversy erupted after Rodriguez’s campaign announced it had fired its campaign manager following the discovery of “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies” in campaign finance filings and Rodriguez herself admitted in a Monday press conference that her campaign only had $200,000 after months of representations that it had millions in the bank.
Barnes’ campaign manager, Darby O’Connor, issued a pointed statement following that press conference
“It’s never been more clear that Sara Rodriguez isn’t ready to serve Wisconsin as our top executive,” O’Connor said. “Sara Rodriguez only noticed hundreds of thousands of dollars missing when she didn’t see her face on TV. This level of gross mismanagement of finances and staff is unheard of in professional politics.”
O’Connor further accused Rodriguez of intentionally hiding her campaign’s dire financial straits and only coming forward because finance reports are due this week.
“Sara Rodriguez didn’t come forward out of transparency. Like her state budget pledge, she prefers to manage her campaign’s finances behind closed doors,” O’Connor said. “She only came forward because her mismanagement and dishonesty was scheduled to become public at 11:59pm on Wednesday.
“She has repeatedly lied about raising millions to try to display false strength despite consistently polling in third—even in her own internals,” the statement read. It concluded that “A campaign this poorly mismanaged stands no chance against Tom Tiffany this fall.”
The release included a list of pointed questions for Rodriguez, pressing her on the accuracy of upcoming filings, donor compensation, potential legal issues, and the timeline of when she became aware of the problems. Among them: “How do you intend to compensate donors whose funds were misappropriated? Will you be refunding those who were misled about the viability of your campaign?” and “Why did it take 6 months for you to find out about these errors?”
The developments come as Democrats are scrambling to stop socialist Francesca Hong from winning the nomination and providing what they believe to be the weakest challenge to Republican Tom Tiffany in the general election. Barnes, a former lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidate, has positioned himself as a progressive alternative to Hong with stronger grassroots support than other establishment Democrats like Rodriguez.
Calls for Rodriguez to exit the race have only intensified since her press conference, which only served to highlight the egregiousness of her campaign’s incompetence and potentially fraudulent dishonesty.
