A new campaign finance report details the chaotic end to Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s campaign for governor, even after she’d fired her campaign manager and bowed out of the race
That included Rodriguez donating $20,000 of her own money to her campaign fund, and reimbursing an outside group for nearly $53,000, even though the group was supposed to operate independently under the law
Rodriguez’s campaign implosion shook up the governor’s race, leaving party leaders scrambling for another mainstream candidate to back in the Democratic primary
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Her financial woes were first made public on the evening of July 12, when she announced she had fired her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, citing “serious mismanagement” of her campaign finances
The next day, Rodriguez held a press conference and said that her campaign was short hundreds of thousands of dollars. Asked how some of those errors had gone unnoticed for so long, Rodriguez said she regretted trusting Spencer, and pledged to stay in the race
A mandatory report filed with the state Monday night covering most of July showed that over the next few days, Rodriguez received a swell of individual donations. The campaign also held a private fundraiser in Milwaukee on July 15, according to an email obtained by WPR. Hosted by Rodriguez’s campaign treasurer, Jackie Boynton, and philanthropist Julilly Kohler, tickets ranged in price from $100 to $2,500
The campaign touted that fundraising as a sign ofing released on July 16, her campaign reported that it had only $35,000 in cash on hand, not counting several unsettled debts
On the morning of July 17, Rodriguez dropped out of the race, saying she could not allow questions that hung over her campaign “to become a cloud over an election that Democrats need to win.”
Days later, on July 21, Rodriguez’s latest report with the state shows she donated $20,000 to her campaign
On July 22, her campaign spent $52,900 to reimburse Wisconsin Forward Fund, an ostensibly independent group that had run ads supporting her campaign
Reached by WPR, Boynton, Rodriguez’s campaign treasurer, said she had directed questions “to the financial people on Sara’s campaign.”
Before she dropped out of the race for governor, Rodriguez’s campaign reportedly said her treasurer was “a figurehead and volunteer role and was not involved in day to day finance operations.” Rodriguez said her campaign manager had been in charge of finance reports
Funds from pro-Rodriguez group were ‘borrowed … in error’
Wisconsin Forward Fund is organized as a 501(c)(4), which allows it to “engage in some political activities” but not participate in political campaigns, according to the Internal Revenue Service
Groups like this are not uncommon in the world of issue advocacy. Planned Parenthood, the National Rifle Association and the Sierra Club all operate 501(c)(4) arms as part of their overarching missions
Rodriguez’s campaign referenced Wisconsin Forward Fund’s legal status in its refund memo, saying saying the funds had been “borrowed from C4 account in error.”
But it’s not clear how the Rodriguez campaign got money from the group in the first place
“I don’t have any record of Wisconsin Forward Fund giving her money,” said David Julseth, a data analyst with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
On its face, Wisconsin Forward Fund does not look like a typical 501(c)(4). Its sparse website is largely dedicated to Rodriguez’s health policy priorities. Public records don’t show who managed the organization
According to a running tally by the advertising tracking firm AdImpact, which was Wisconsin Forward Fund spent $926,000 in paid media during the course of the campaign praising Rodriguez
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