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>> After a Monday news
conference where she fired

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her campaign manager for
messing up the financial

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reports but still vowed to
stay in the race,

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Democratic primary
candidate for governor

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Sarah Rodriguez, today
dropped out. She said the

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fundraising reporting mess
would be too big of a

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distraction. Senior
political reporter Zac

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Schultz is here with
details on. Hi, Zac.

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>> Hello, Fred.
>> So this has been almost

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like a slow motion train
wreck. Exactly what

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happened.
>> It's been a back and

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forth all week. Last week
we were talking about all

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the momentum she had. The
candidates that had dropped

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out were endorsing her. I
was in touch with the

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campaign to see where she
be out in the field this

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week. We were going to
touch base with all the

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Democratic candidates, and
said, well, we're still

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figuring out that schedule.
Well, by Sunday, they'd

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fired her campaign manager.
By Monday, she has a press

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conference saying, I'm in
the race, but fundraising

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is a little weaker. We
talked to the other

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candidates. They're like,
authority. It says you can

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run things and you don't
have any oversight of your

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own campaign. Her campaign
finance sheets come and

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show she's broke and deeply
in debt. Then she makes

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another press conference to
say that she's got all this

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money and then quickly says,
nope, sorry, that was an

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error as well. And now
she's out. So it's been

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back and forth, people
really trying to figure out

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where is the truth. And
when she says it was a

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distraction, she's 100%
most honest thing that's

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been said about the
campaign all week, is this

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was dominating all the
headlines and would have if

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she would have stayed in
this race.

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>> She was considered a
frontrunner, though.

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>> Absolutely. When you
were looking at if you

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looked at that Democratic
primary in terms of lanes,

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there was clearly Francesca
Hong in the more

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progressive far left lane.
She had owned that for

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quite a while in this race,
and it was a question of

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who could coalesce more of
that centrist moderate

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candidacy. And Sara
Rodriguez was taking that

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over. And now that it's
gone, it's a question of

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who takes advantage of that.
Where do those voters go?

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>> So now Governor Evers is
reportedly talking about

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backing an effort to draw
David Crowley back into the

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race. Why? What happened
there with him?

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>> Well, David Crowley
dropped out almost a couple

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of weeks ago, saying it was
clear he wasn't going to

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have a lane it was assumed
he was contesting with

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Rodriguez saw her momentum
and knew he couldn't get

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their fundraising reports
that they just were filed

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so that he actually has
plenty of cash on hand, a

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lot more than her.
Significantly, if her

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transparent from the
beginning, there's a

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question of whether he
would have dropped out

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because he would have been
significantly ahead of her.

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There are other centrists
that are saying, hey, bring

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him back. He's the next
best person to take that

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mantle with Rodriguez out
of the race. And now it's a

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question of whether he will
do that and what will that

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look like?
>> Yeah. Who else stands to

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gain?
>> Well, Joel Brennan

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clearly says this is his
moment to shine and people

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to hear his name for the
first time. If you're not

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finely tuned into this race.
Kelda Roys Mandela Barnes.

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They all claim that they
can benefit from this

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Francesca Hong to a degree,
because there there were

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people that backed that
just want a Democrat who

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can win. And now she may
have a more open race all

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the way to winning this
primary. If her main

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contender from the centrist
candidacy falls apart.

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>> So meanwhile, Republican
candidate Tom Tiffany not

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only has gobs of money
comparatively, but this

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must be great for the GOP.
>> Oh, they absolutely love

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this. Any time you see the
other party falling apart

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on their own mistakes
missteps, then it's good

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news for Tom Tiffany,
because he's had this whole

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opportunity all summer long
to run positive ads. He's

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got a ton of money in the
bank, 2 million cash on

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hand, pretty much all of
that coming from

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billionaires who have given
to the party that have

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given to him the
billionaire loophole that

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he came on our air and
criticized a few months ago

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he's now taking advantage
of. But that's politics.

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He's definitely in a much
better position. I did ask

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the Democratic candidates
this week, can you overcome

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that after this primary?
And they said, absolutely.

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Once we get past August,
then we can start

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contrasting the record that
he tries to portray versus

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his record attached to
Trump.

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>> Meanwhile, the
Republicans are airing ads

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talking about Francesca
Hong. And what are they

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doing there?
>> Well, they're

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technically they are
negative ads, but they're

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airing them in Madison,
Milwaukee, 2 Francesca Hong

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base in an attempt to rile
them up. We've seen groups

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play in Democratic
primaries across the

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country in an effort to
boost what they view as a

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weaker candidate, a more
socialist, progressive

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candidate. There are lots
of statements in Francesca

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Hong background that she
owns that do not play well

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according to centrist, or
perhaps in a regular

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contest in November.
>> Have you ever seen

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anything like this in your
coverage of politics in

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Wisconsin over the years?
>> Not like this. We've

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seen campaigns fall apart.
We've seen campaigns run

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out of money and be deep in
debt. That's not new. It's

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the the discord that it all
came out and this back and

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forth throughout the week.
If this had come out in

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February or March and those
statements have been

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corrected, she probably
moved on because she still

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had support this week. Just
this week, talking to

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people out in the field,
she won the Ozaukee County

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Democratic straw poll with
Francesca Hong in the

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audience. So the support
was still there, but it was

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clear that she could not
change the message away

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from her oversight of her
own campaign to back to one