Well, that was a rather spectacular implosion. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s campaign is a Titan submersible, not built to withstand the pressure, its sudden disintegration the result of faulty engineering that is her own damn fault. Her supporters will spend a few days hoping the sub will surface. But I’m calling this now. This is going to Sara’s OceanGate. Her campaign has already blown up. She just hasn’t realized it yet.
It reminds me, sort of, of the way in which Joe Biden’s campaign was undone by that single abysmal, staring-off-into-space debate. True story. I watched that debate at a local GOP county HQ watch party, and the second it was over, I told the crowd, “He’s done. He will never recover from this.” A couple people fought back at that; “It wasn’t that bad,” insisted one. “Yes, I told them, it really was.”
Like a punch to Houdini’s gut, there are some hits that you just don’t make it back from. And all of my political instincts say that this is one of them. That feeling was reinforced by Rodriguez’s shambolic press conference, which raised more questions than it answered, and by her campaign’s continued bumbling throughout the day – reporter AJ Bayatpour obtained a list of scripted talking points that Rodriguez’s bungling campaign sent liberal social media pages, begging them to repeat nice nonsense about her. They didn’t even get her own page’s handle right.
By nightfall, Dan Shafer, the state’s most influential liberal scribe, was quoting anonymous Democrats saying she is toast and dramatically referring it all to almost an “extinction level event.”
Shafer is the canary in the mine. It won’t be long before Sara gets THE CALL: “Sara, no one is going to give you money, and you don’t have enough for ads. We’re scared more shoes will drop. Please exit stage left for the good of the party so Tom Tiffany doesn’t get to run against a nutball who wants to abolish capitalism and the U.S. Constitution. THE DONORS ARE ASKING.”
Sara Doesn’t Do Apologies
Rodriguez needs a lesson in Janet Reno-style crisis management: repeat after me, Sara: “The buck stops with me.” People respect someone who takes ownership. Sara doesn’t do accountability. I asked her twice at her chaotic press conference whether the buck stops with her, but she would not answer. Instead, she kicked her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, under the bus with a sharpened heel (dear Kara, I would like to interview you. Standing offer.)
Since Rodriguez said there was a lawyer involved, and since Spencer has vaporized despite having her career spectacularly wrecked overnight on the public stage, I wanted to ask Rodriguez whether she made Spencer sign an NDA. But she kept blatantly directing the questions away from me every time I tried to open my mouth. At least WISN’s Matt Smith got to ask some good questions (he’s a nice guy, by the way. He was super pleasant to me even though I called his show clownish the other day. I told him I was referring to MPD Chief Jeff Norman and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson acting like Bozos, not him.)
Uniquely Sara
I have never seen anything like Sara’s implosion before in politics, nationally or in Wisconsin. I was wracking my brain for an example. It’s an epic collapse. My goodness! Her campaign has been a complete fiction! Her $1 million “ad buy,” announced just days ago, was fiction. She has $200,000, not $1 million, which is less than a competitive Assembly race.
Her press release announcing that ad buy a couple days ago was basically chick lit – and Spencer did it! Her campaign finance reports are fiction too – and Spencer did it! It’s like Sara isn’t running her actual campaign or has no idea what the hell was going on in it. But she wants to run Wisconsin? “Vote for Sara: She Has No Idea What’s Going On!” Great slogan.
At one point, I asked whether she regrets not having more oversight. But she ignored the question. “What do you sign off on?” asked the indefatigable Smith. Rodriguez babbled something about her campaign manager making the bad decisions again. Multiple political operatives pointed out to me that it’s highly unusual – and terrible practice – to use your campaign manager to also do your reports, so, actually, yes, the buck stops with the candidate. Mandela Barnes’ campaign emphasized this, calling it SARA’S mismanagement and SARA’S dishonesty. Republican Tom Tiffany alleged that Rodriguez’s campaign was “cooking the books.”
Her campaign’s strength – supposedly being “the one” who can defeat revolutionaries Mandela Barnes and Fran Hong – is also fiction! The closest analogy I can come up with is George Santos fabricating that he worked for Goldman Sachs or that his mom died from 9/11 injuries. But that’s more similar to Mandela Barnes once fibbing about graduating from college. Sara’s fantasist campaign is like an imaginary friend. We had an entire conversation with it, but it never really existed.
There are so many unanswered questions! Where did the money go? Did it exist at all? What role did her treasurer play (there is one listed, and it’s not Spencer)? What is Spencer’s response? What is her motive? Was this intentional?
And how much money exactly does Rodriguez have? At one point, she said they’re still figuring that out. What?! Then, she floated the $200,000 number. A few days ago, she thought her campaign had $1.5 million. She’s off by $1.3 million?!! Pressed on this, Rodriguez claimed her reports listed donations twice and didn’t pay expenses. Spencer’s fault!
So now Sara doesn’t pay her bills, doesn’t realize she’s putting out false press releases, doesn’t take responsibility for finance reports with her name plastered on them, and doesn’t know how much money her campaign even has, with the election less than 30 days away. Got it. But we’re supposed to trust her to run the state?
Call in the Crisis Comms
When I walked into Rodriguez’s press conference Monday at her Madison HQ, the first person I recognized was prominent Milwaukee crisis comms flack Kimberly Kane, who appeared to be in charge of the event. This is where institutional knowledge can be helpful. She was writing down people’s names and publications. I asked the impeccably put together Kane, who recognized me, how long she has worked for Rodriguez because this struck me as unusual.
Do campaigns usually hire crisis comms types? Kane said she was on board for three weeks. She was last spotted running crisis comms for the Wisconsin Center District Board after their leader, Marty Brooks, was accused of pinching the Common Council president’s butt (he denied it). People often call Kimberly Kane when they’ve got a problem, yet Sara says she didn’t know the problems in her January reports existed until last week (even though some random social media page flagged issues in her reports in late June). “We help leaders prepare for, navigate, and recover from high-stakes situations,” Kane’s website declares.
Sure enough, Rodriguez’s opening statement sounded like something created on a white board in a hastily scheduled crisis comms session. I can almost hear it now: “We need to position you as solving the problem, so focus on the fact you took action by firing the campaign manager!” And: “Use the words honesty and transparency 100 times.” Someone probably told her about the infamous Ed Muskie snowflake scandal – whatever you do, don’t break down and cry. But you know what? Rodriguez is a steely, ice-cold individual. I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley. One article online called Muskie’s campaign “a brief comet that lit up the electoral heavens and then flamed out.” Sound familiar?
Rodriguez is trying to separate herself from her own subordinate. She made a Freudian slip perhaps, though, declaring that part of being a leader is “to be honest if possible when there’s a problem.” To be honest “if possible”? It’s always possible to be honest. You’re either honest or you’re not. There were other moments of weird semantics dodges.
When a reporter asked what Spencer’s response was when Rodriguez brought the problems up to her, Rodriguez responded, “That’s what we’re trying to uncover.” What? Why would she need to uncover Spencer’s response to her? When I asked her what she wanted to say to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who quit and tossed his support to her, she responded, “I have spoken to supporters all over the state.” Asked whether her $1 million announced ad buy “will still be a million dollars,” she said, “we’ve raised almost a million dollars.” But that’s not what was asked.
She doesn’t have a million dollars. She has $200,000.
She also said politicians don’t normally stand in front of cameras being “as honest and transparent as I have been.” Well, they don’t have to because the other candidates’ campaign finance reports aren’t total fantasy. Her glum supporters, carefully positioned behind her at the press conference, gamely applauded, but video clips later documented that they all looked like their pet gerbil had just died.
Back to the white board ladies. Not answering questions and using contorted semantics is not being “transparent.”
David Crowley Deserves Better
This is not harmless error.
David Crowley left the race on the basis of Rodriguez’s perceived strength and (now embarrassingly) endorsed her, declaring her to be the best candidate ever or whatever. I texted Crowley and asked whether he’s getting back in or pulling his endorsement and got no response. I asked Rodriguez whether she owes Crowley an apology, and she didn’t respond, while repeating that she was “transparent” over and over again.
But this might be the most damning part of the press conference, other than the part where she admitted her campaign reports were a sham.
Rodriguez admitted that she learned about the problems last Tuesday, when her ads didn’t show up on TV. On Wednesday, her campaign flagged that a media invoice hadn’t been paid.
Well, isn’t that interesting because she allowed Crowley to drop out of the race and gush about her – and demand that all of the other candidates get out too – in a big press conference on… Thursday.
An honest and transparent person would have told him the truth, even if she was still unraveling the problem. “Hey, David, in all candor, you should probably hold off for a few days until I figure a couple things out.” Not doing so was scummy to the point of dishonor. If I was Crowley, I would be super pissed. It’s deceitful.
She’ll be gone within a week or two, most likely. There are two major problems. She has almost no money. And since her money totals were a complete fraud, who is going to give her more of it? Without money, she won’t have major ad buys. And without major ad buys, she’s kaput.
Who benefits? Who gets to own the soon-to-be vacated Democratic establishment lane? Joel “I’m too corporate for my shirt” Brennan and Kelda “If I shriek loudest will they notice me” Roys are jockeying for that spot. Brennan released a thoughtful statement and a list of pertinent questions, and he even texted me back. He excoriated Rodriguez for failing to take responsibility. Kelda went on a wild rant. I don’t remember what it said because her press releases are as pleasant as acrylic nails on a chalkboard.
Front runners Mandela “Governor Drama” Barnes and Francesca “I want to abolish the country” Hong are sitting pretty. There’s a Marquette poll coming out Tuesday that might give Rodriguez a burst of short-lived adrenaline, but it’s like looking at a distant star – you’ll be looking into the past, when Rodriguez briefly seemed like she could win, but it doesn’t actually exist anymore.
Inasmuch as this all increases the chances that Barnes or Hong wins the primary, the real winner is Republican Tom Tiffany. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall at the next DGA strategy session?
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