Democrat Wisconsin Assembly member and State Senate candidate Robyn Vining has consistently touted her success as a small business owner on the campaign trail, but the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has repeatedly marked her limited liability corporation delinquent and once administratively dissolved the company after missed annual filings.
State records and public corporate listings show Robyn Vining Photography LLC repeatedly failed to file yearly reports and pay required fees. In 2016, the LLC was marked as delinquent and, after multiple notices throughout the following year, it was dissolved by DFI in 2017.
LLCs incorporated in Wisconsin must file an annual report and pay a nominal fee to DFI each year. If they do not, the department marks them delinquent. If the report stays unfiled for about a year, DFI may publish a notice of administrative dissolution and then dissolve the entity.
After Vining’s LLC was dissolved, she restored it to good standing in 2018, but it was marked delinquent in its annual filings and payments again in 2021. DFI restored it a short time later, but Vining again failed to file her annual reports or pay required fees and the LLC was hit with another notice of dissolution in 2023 before being restored to good standing in 2024.
As recently as this past January, Robyn Vining Photography LLC was again delinquent but restored later that month.
Vining, a Democratic state representative from Wauwatosa and the party’s nominee for the 5th Senate District, describes herself as a photographer and small-business owner who built the studio about 15 years ago. Her campaign and legislative biographies still use that description, and a photography site associated with her name has continued to advertise sessions.
Vining faces Republican Mike Roberts in November’s general election. GOP Senator Rob Hutton decided earlier this year not to run for another term.
