While Wisconsin registers its outrage over Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez pldeding to craft the next state budget ‘behind a curtain,’ Dan O’Donnell realizes that the real story is why the audio is being leaked now.
Lost in the (justified) outrage over Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s pledge to craft the next state budget “behind a curtain” so as to avoid public scrutiny is an understanding about why her comments came to light at all: Someone is trying to take her out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
In the clearest indication yet that Democrats have taken off the kid gloves and are inching closer to one another’s throats, anonymously sourced audio of Rodriguez at a recent Rock County Democratic Party event made their way to WISN 12 reporter Matt Smith.
One needs only a passing familiarity with politics to understand how. A rival campaign sent a “tracker” to surreptitiously record Rodriguez’s speeches in the hopes of catching her saying something controversial. The second he or she did, the campaign sent the audio to Smith for immediate publication.
Two things are immediately obvious here: 1. Trackers rarely record video because holding up a cell phone throughout a 30–40-minute speech draws too much attention and 2. releasing damaging audio now does not benefit Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany at all.
In other words, this was almost certainly a Democrat op. Had Tiffany’s campaign recorded the audio, it would have likely held it until the general election (provided Rodriguez makes it through) so as to paint her as secretive and untrustworthy to a broader audience. In the early stages of a primary, when far fewer voters are paying attention, Wednesday’s release helps only those who can benefit from a Rodriguez misstep now.
The most likely culprits are the more moderate (read: not insane socialist) Democrats who are jockeying for position as the “non-Hong” safer alternative. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, State Senator Kelda Roys, and former Administration Secretary Joel Brennan all immediately condemned Rodriguez’s comments and, not coincidentally, all would have the most to gain from her fall.
Regardless, the fact that some Democrat is already releasing opposition research on another is a major development, as it signals that this primary is about to get deeply personal and vitriolic.
Once it does, the biggest winner will be Tiffany. Without a contested Republican primary, he can sit back and allow the Dems to destroy one another—hopefully leaving as the last candidate standing the least electable one—while he continues to introduce himself to general election voters as the down-home and slightly nerdy but ultimately normal alternative.
Rodriguez may wish that Democrat dirty work is done in secret, but now the entire state can see that the knives are truly out in this primary.
