'A devastating blow': Campaign vets, rival candidates shocked at Sara Rodriguez's financial mishap
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- One day after a big shakeup in the crowded Democratic primary for governor, both campaign veterans and the Democratic opponents of Sara Rodriguez said having such a massive financial mishap go unnoticed for months was practically unheard of.
Rodriguez announced Monday, July 13, she had fired her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, after discovering last week the campaign had nowhere near the amount of money it claimed to have.
Rodriguez, who's currently serving as lieutenant governor, told reporters she only discovered the high discrepancy after noticing new campaign ads were not airing on television last week. The campaign had previously announced it had purchased $1 million worth of airtime.
Scot Ross, a Democratic analyst who has previously worked on gubernatorial campaigns, said he had not previously seen a case where there was such a big discrepancy between what a campaign said it had in funding compared to what it actually had on hand.
In confirming the $1 million ad buy didn't happen, Rodriguez added she only has about $200,000 on hand.
"I think it is a devastating blow to her campaign," Ross said. "I think she's been a good lieutenant governor. I think she was a good member of the state Assembly, but this could not be a worse time to have something like this happen."
Rodriguez told reporters a review of campaign finances found a number of duplicate donations listed the campaign's finance report that was due last January. On top of that, she said the campaign realized it had spent more money than what it had disclosed.
A CBS 58 review of Rodriguez's January campaign finance report found numerous instances of a donor showing up as having donated the same amount on the same day.
For instance, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway showed up as having donated $5 once in July. Then, Rhodes-Conway shows up with duplicate $5 donations on the same day in August, September, October, November and December.
With Rhodes-Conway and numerous other donors, there were slight differences with each entry; some show an accompanying occupation while others leave the line blank. In other instances, there's a nine-digit ZIP code while others have a five-digit ZIP code.
Rodriguez said she trusted Spencer to handle the compliance aspect of the campaign because of her past campaign experience, adding she now regretted that decision.
Joe Zepecki, a Democratic strategist, told CBS 58 when he worked on Mary Burke's 2014 gubernatorial campaign, an operations team routinely checked in with financial updates. Zepecki said it was unusual to have a campaign manager seemingly be the only person tasked with monitoring finances.
Rodriguez's report showed Zepecki donated $200 twice on the same day in December. Zepecki confirmed he checked his banking records and found he only had $200 taken from his account.
When asked if he thinks the mishap doomed her campaign, Ross said he thinks it's possible Rodriguez rebounds. However, he added she's running out of time to restore both her war chest and her reputation.
"I think Sara has real challenges," Ross said. "And I think over the course of the next four or five days, the phone calls she is making to raise money are going to be an indication to her as to whether or not she's weathering the storm or whether the time has come to end the campaign."
Campaign rivals take their shots
Polling in recent months has signaled Rodriguez is one of three frontrunners in the Democratic primary, along with State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and former Dept. of Administration secretary Joel Brennan are also staying in the race. Both Brennan and Roys expressed shock at how the Rodriguez campaign went months before realizing the seriousness of its financial problems.
"I check both our finance plan and budget and the balance in our actual bank account on at least a weekly basis," Roys told CBS 58 while riding to Wausau Tuesday. "So it is frankly unbelievable to think about how long this has gone on and just the scale of it."
Brennan called the admission a "headscratcher."
"It's befuddling to me that a candidate could have that little awareness of what's going on in their campaign," he told CBS 58 Monday.
In a post to social media, Hong said she looked forward to sharing "extremely good news" Wednesday about the resources her campaign has. So far, Hong is the only Democratic candidate to not announce an ad buy.
[Monday's] press conference was an unfortunate example of why voters are suspicious of traditional politics and leaders who refuse accountability," Hong posted.
Barnes spoke to CBS 58 Tuesday, and his response to questions about Rodriguez was much less pointed than the statements his campaign issued.
"The facts are the facts. People are able to make the decision for themselves," Barnes said Tuesday. "If they feel misled, that person is certainly entitled to feel that way."
Barnes' campaign manager, Darby O'Connor, said in a statement about Rodriguez, "This level of gross mismanagement of finances and staff is unheard of in professional politics."
The presumptive Republican nominee, Congressman Tom Tiffany, has teed off on Rodriguez since Monday's announcement. His social media account has made several posts about the mishap.
In a statement, Tiffany said there are still several unanswered questions about how the issues went undetected for so long.
"Why was there so little oversight of her campaign finances?" Tiffany said. "If this is how she manages her own campaign, she shouldn’t be trusted with Wisconsin’s budget or taxpayer dollars."
Ross said he was not concerned about Rodriguez's financial woes hurting the party in November. Regardless of whether she's the nominee, he maintained voters will be far angrier about high prices -- particularly for gas following President Trump's decision to launch a war with Iran.
"Whoever comes out of the primary," Ross said. "If they don't win this race, they should all have to turn in their 'I'm gonna participate in politics' cards, because this is absolutely a race the Democrats should win, and it's a race they must win."