Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez fires campaign manager; "serious mismanagement"
MADISON, Wis. - Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez held a news conference on Monday, July 13, after she fired her campaign manager, accusing her of serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings.
Rodriguez has been consolidating some support. Two of her former Democratic competitors have endorsed her – Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes.
Donations double counted
What we know:
Rodriguez told reported her campaign finance reported double counted some donations. She said some expenses were not put in, and that meant the reported showed she had more money than she really did.
Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez fires campaign manager
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez terminated her campaign manager over "serious mismanagement" and financial filing "inaccuracies."
Rodriguez said right now, they have a little more than $200,000 in the bank. The next filing is due on Wednesday, July 15.
FOX6 News reviewed her campaign filing from January. It was filed hours after the January 15 deadline, and was amended twice hours later. FOX6 News found many dozens of donors appear to have repeat donations, meaning the person gave the same amount of money twice on the same day. But in nearly all of the case, the differences were minor – like the formatting of the name; it might have had an extra space or middle initial, or a ZIP code with five digits versus the longer nine-digit ZIP code.
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Rodriguez said the discrepancies came to light last Tuesday when a media invoice was not paid. Earlier, her campaign said they had placed a $1 million TV ad buy that never happened. Rodriguez said the total cash was hundreds of thousands of dollars less than she expected. Over the weekend, she said a team audited the books and found discrepancies. On Monday, the campaign alerted the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
What they're saying:
"If the buck stops with you when in reaction to your competitor Joe Brennan, who asks, how is this not disqualifying? What do you say to that?" asked FOX6's Jason Calvi.
"I would say that most people are not going to stand in front of this many cameras and microphones to talk about fixing an error," Rodriguez said. "That's what I am here doing. And that's what you want to see in leadership and what you want to see in your next governor."
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez
What we don't know:
FOX6 News reached out to get the fired campaign manager's side of this story. Our call and text message to Kara Spencer went unanswered.
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FOX6 News also emailed Jacqueline Boynton, the campaign’s treasurer, to ask for her side of the story. She declined, stating, "All needs to go through the campaign."
The Source: Information in this post was provided by the Rodriguez campaign and work by FOX6's Jason Calvi.