Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, after a disastrous 24 hours of additional inaccurate campaign finance report filings and amendments, dropped out of the Wisconsin governor’s race Friday morning.
The once Democrat establishment darling’s exit from the race leaves elites who don’t want Mandela Barnes or Francesca Hong (the front runners in polls) scrambling to figure out what to do. In a stunning potential rejection of the two other candidates still competing for the moderate lane (leftist Kelda Roys and actual moderate Joel Brennan), WISN’s Matt Smith is reporting that Democrats may be plotting with Gov. Tony Evers to bring back Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who already quit the race.
“According to Democratic sources on the current status of convos among Dems: Mandela Barnes, they say, is down in every market in internals and they privately acknowledge Francesca Hong will not win a general election and need to find another candidate to rally behind,” Smith wrote. Added Smith: “A source close to David Crowley’s thinking says he is strongly considering re-entering the race for governor.”
This theory is certainly plausible. Wisconsin Right Now has been reporting for months that, top-level sources say, Evers has always quietly backed Crowley, eschewing his own current and former lieutenant governors. “Multiple senior Democratic strategists, not authorized to speak publicly, say there is a movement right now among key Dems to get Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley back in the race for governor and have Gov. Tony Evers endorse him, which Gov. Evers is considering,” wrote Smith on Friday July 17.
Reporter AJ Bayatpour reported, though, that Crowley previously rejected getting back in the race. But he says that was, in part, because Rodriguez was still in it. “Multiple sources say high-level Democrats this week pushed to have Crowley get back in the race, but he decided against it. Two of the key considerations were whether Rodriguez would drop out and if Gov. Evers would endorse him in the primary. One of those dominos has fallen,” Bayatpour wrote.
Crowley left the race under the fall pretense that Rodriguez’s campaign was strong and coming out with a $1 million ad buy. It later turned out that Rodriguez’s campaign finance reports were in shambles and she didn’t have $1 million at all – by Tuesday, she was reporting a negative balance when you count debt. In a press conference, Rodriguez admitted that she knew there were problems days before she allowed Crowley to take the stage, quit, endorse her and urge all of her opponents to quit too (no others did).
So, Crowley would have a right to feel deceived. Whether he would be able to clear the establishment lane field and gain enough support to defeat Barnes and Hong, is another question altogether, especially with Brennan and Roys still in the race.
