Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez says if she is elected governor, she will craft the next Wisconsin state budget ‘behind a curtain’ to avoid a ‘circular firing squad’ among Democrat legislators.
In a stunning admission indicating backroom deal-making will define her administration, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez declared she would craft the next state budget “behind a curtain” if elected governor, shielding negotiations from public view and even her own party to avoid a circular firing squad among Democrats.
The comment, captured at a closed-door event with Rock County Democrats in Janesville on April 16, exposes the lengths some Democrats will go to ram through their tax-and-spend wishlist without pesky transparency getting in the way. Rodriguez, one of more than half a dozen Democrats vying to replace Tony Evers in 2026, told supporters she’s already committed to Senate and Assembly Democratic leaders to deliver a budget before her hypothetical inauguration, but only after hashing it out in secret.
“I will say that I have committed to having a budget done before I swear in, and we are going to do this, we are going to do our negotiations behind a curtain so that we are not doing a circular firing squad within the Democratic Party,” Rodriguez said, according to audio obtained by WISN 12 News. She added that Democrats must “put as much as we can into the budget” early and fast, bundling controversial items so “purple district Democrats” who might balk at standalone bills can more easily swallow the whole package.
Her campaign later tried to spin the curtain as mere “consensus building” during a transition period, insisting she respects Evers and wants a budget that reflects “values and priorities” such as “affordable health care and housing” and “investments in public schools. But the message was crystal clear: even some Democrats can’t stomach her agenda in the open.
Fellow Democrat candidates weren’t buying it. State Sen. Kelda Roys fired back that “sunshine is the best disinfectant” and “backroom deals are NOT the way to deliver progress for Wisconsinites.” Joel Brennan, a former Evers cabinet member who helped craft two state budgets, said bluntly: “You don’t get a good budget by hiding it from the people it’s supposed to serve.”
Even Evers’ own team appeared to distance itself. A spokesperson reminded Rodriguez that being a legislator is not the same as being governor, noting Evers holds extensive public listening sessions and stakeholder meetings before proposing budgets. The governor’s office added that Evers calls his approach getting s#!t done, a not-so-subtle jab at Rodriguez’s critique that she felt challenged with the level of communication from his office while serving in the Assembly.
Tom Tiffany, the leading GOP candidate for governor, called the remarks a direct admission that moderate Democrats would “struggle with her ideas.” Tiffany promised the opposite: statewide listening sessions and zero secrecy. “You deserve transparency,” he posted. “I won’t govern in secrecy.”
The Republican Governors Association was even harsher, warning Rodriguez’s curtain is there because she knows voters would reject her “tax and spend policies.” Spokesman Kollin Crompton said she wants to protect moderate Democrats “from her crazy ideas.”
Wisconsinites have every right to be skeptical. For years, Evers’ budgets have drawn conservative fire for creative accounting and power grabs — most notoriously his partial veto that effectively hiked school revenue limits for 400 years. Rodriguez’s plan to bundle everything into one opaque package smells like the same old Democratic playbook: hide the details, blame “the process,” and hope taxpayers foot the bill without asking too many questions.
With Democrats dreaming of a legislative trifecta and a once-in-a-generation spending spree, Rodriguez’s curtain call isn’t leadership — it’s an admission that her agenda can’t survive daylight. Wisconsin families deserve better than Oz-style governance. They deserve a governor who’s proud to show his or her work, not one who pulls the strings from behind the scenes.
