Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez said Monday that she discovered her campaign has hundreds of thousands dollars less cash than she thought after campaign ads slated to run last week did not air because of unpaid invoices.
Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor, announced late Sunday night that she had fired her campaign manager just a month before the Aug. 11 primary after discovering contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, leading to her campaign having far less money than she thought.
Rodriguez, at a news conference surrounded by supporters, vowed to remain in the race.
“This campaign is going to move forward,” she said in the appearance at her campaign headquarters.
Rodriguez is in a competitive primary for Wisconsin’s open governor’s race against democratic socialist Francesca Hong, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and three others. The winner of the primary will advance to the general election against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only token primary opposition.
Last week Rodriguez announced a $1 million television ad campaign buy. But when the ads didn’t start running as she expected, Rodriguez said she began asking questions and discovered the problems in the campaign reports.
“I am hurt, angry and deeply disappointed by someone I trusted to run my campaign,” Rodriguez said of her fired campaign manager, Kara Spencer. “I was continually getting inaccurate reports from my campaign manager.”
Spencer did not return a message seeking comment.
It’s fucking crazy how much this happens, and it’s almost always a terrible sign for the candidate.
Sure “that’s why they have a treasurer” but if they pick people do this shit in a primary, they’re gonna pick the same quality (if not exact same people) as their staff.
Yes, it’s hard to manage a primary campaign team and make sure everyone is doing their jobs, but it’s a lot fucking harder to run an entire state as Governor.