After a Monday news conference where
she fired her campaign manager
for messing up the financial reports
but still vowed to stay
in the race, Democratic primary
candidate for governor Sara
Rodriguez today dropped
out.
She said the fundraising reporting
mess would be too big of a
distraction.
Senior political reporter Zach
Schultz is here with details and hi
Zach. Hello Fred.
So this has been almost like
a slow-motion train wreck exactly
what happened
It's been a back and forth all week.
Last week, we were talking about all
the momentum she had.
The candidates that had dropped out
were endorsing her.
I was in touch with the campaign to
see where she'd be out in the field
this week. We were gonna touch base
with all the Democratic candidates.
And they got back to me and said,
well, we're still figuring out that
schedule. Well, by Sunday, they'd
fired her campaign manager.
By Monday, she has a press
conference saying, I'm in the race,
but fundraising's a little weaker.
As we talk to the other candidates,
they're like, what a mess.
Your whole authority says you can
run things and you don't have any
oversight of your own campaign.
Her campaign finance sheets come and
show she's broke and deeply in
debt. Then she makes another press
conference to say that she's got all
this money and then quickly says,
nope, sorry, that was an error as
well. And now she's out.
So it's been back and forth.
People really tried to figure out
where is the truth.
And when she says it was a
distraction, she's 100% correct.
That may be the most honest thing
that's been said about the campaign
all week.
Is this was dominating all
of the headlines and would have if
she would have stayed in this race.
She was considered a
front runner though.
Absolutely, when you're looking at
the, if you look at that Democratic
primary in terms of lanes, there was
clearly Francesca Hong in the more
progressive far left lane.
She had owned that for quite a while
in this race.
And it was a question of who could
call less more, that centrist
moderate candidacy.
And Sarah Rodriguez was taking that
over. And now that it's gone, it's a
question who takes advantage of
that. Where do those voters go?
So now Governor Evers is
reportedly talking about backing an
effort to draw David Crowley back
into the race.
What happened there with him?
Well, David Crowley dropped out
almost a couple of weeks ago, saying
it was clear he wasn't going to have
a lane.
It was assumed he was contesting
with Rodriguez, saw her momentum,
and knew he couldn't get there.
Fundraising reports that just were
filed show that he actually has
plenty of cash on hand, a lot more
than her significantly.
If her campaign had been transparent
from the beginning, there's a
question of whether he would have
dropped out, because he would've
been significantly ahead of her.
There are other centrists that are
saying, hey, bring him back.
He's the next best person.
To take that mantle with Rodriguez
out of the race. And now it's a
question of whether he will do that.
And what will that look like?
Yeah, who else stands to
gain?
Well, Joel Brennan clearly says this
is his moment to shine and people to
hear his name for the first time if
you're not finally tuned into this
race. Kel DeRoy's, Mandela Barnes,
they all claim that they can benefit
from this.
Francesca Hong, to a degree, because
there were people that backed,
that just want a Democrat who can
win. And now she may have a more
open race all the way.
To winning this primary if her main
contender from the centrist
candidacy falls apart.
So, meanwhile, Republican candidate,
Tom Tiffany, not only has
gobs of money, comparatively,
but this must be great for
the GOP.
Oh, they absolutely love this.
Anytime you see the other party
falling apart on their own
missteps, then it's
good news for Tom Tiffany because
he's had this whole opportunity all
summer long to run positive ads.
He's got a ton of money in the bank,
two million cash on hand.
Pretty much all of that coming from
billionaires who have given to the
party that are given to him.
The billionaire loophole that he
came on our air and criticized a few
months ago, he's now taking
advantage of, but that's politics.
He's definitely in a much better
position. I did ask the Democratic
candidates this week.
Can you overcome that after this
primary? And they said, absolutely.
Once we get past August,
then we can start contrasting
the record that he tries to portray
versus his record attached to Trump.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are
airing ads talking about
Francesca Hong, and
what are they doing there?
Well, technically they are negative
ads, but they're airing them in
Madison, Milwaukee, to Francesca
Hong's base in attempt to rile them
up. We've seen groups play
in democratic primaries across the
country in an effort to boost what
they view as a weaker candidate, a
more socialist progressive
candidate.
There are lots of statements in
Francesca's Hong background that she
owns that do not
play well according to centrists or
perhaps in a regular contest
in November.
Have you ever seen anything
like this in your coverage of
politics in Wisconsin over the
years?
Not like this.
We've seen campaigns fall apart.
We've see campaigns run out of money
and be deep in debt.
That's not new.
It's the discord that
it all came out in this back and
forth throughout the week.
If this had come out in February or
March and those statements have been
corrected, she probably could have
survived and moved on because she
still had support this week.
Just this week, talking to people
out in the field, she won the
Ozaukee County Democratic Straw Poll
with Francesca Hong in the audience.
So... The support was still there,
but it was clear that she could not
change the message away from her
oversight of her own campaign to
back to one being about the primary.
All right. Well, Zach, thanks very
much for being here.
My pleasure.