Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sara Rodriguez fired her campaign manager late Sunday night after discovering that her campaign had significantly less cash on hand than she thought, a revelation that upended her bid just weeks before the August 11 primary election. The discovery came when campaign ads that were supposed to begin airing last week failed to run because of unpaid invoices, prompting Rodriguez to begin investigating her campaign’s finances.
The problems stemmed from serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings prepared by Kara Spencer, Rodriguez’s campaign manager who had worked on her lieutenant governor campaign in 2021. An internal review found that contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, inflating the campaign’s financial picture. Rodriguez said at a news conference Monday surrounded by supporters that she had been “continually getting inaccurate reports” from Spencer, calling the situation deeply disappointing.
“I am hurt, angry and deeply disappointed by someone I trusted to run my campaign,” Rodriguez said. “I was continually getting inaccurate reports from my campaign manager.”
Spencer did not respond to requests for comment. Rodriguez’s campaign immediately notified the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on Monday and began working to correct the errors, particularly those contained in a report filed in January covering donations and expenditures from the previous year.
Rodriguez said she would not specify exactly how much her campaign filings were off by because reconciliation work was still ongoing. However, she said that after the corrections, her campaign had raised about $1 million total and had approximately $200,000 cash on hand. The $618,000 she had reported raising in 2025 was the second highest among Democratic candidates, trailing only Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who raised approximately $800,000 before dropping out of the race last week.
The discovery proved particularly damaging given its timing. Just days before the finance filing errors became public, Rodriguez had announced a $1 million television advertising buy, one of the largest campaign expenditures by any Democratic candidate in the crowded primary field. That announcement had impressed Democratic party figures enough that Crowley dropped out of the race and immediately endorsed Rodriguez. Another former candidate, Missy Hughes, had also endorsed her following her campaign suspension in late June.
Rodriguez vowed at her Monday news conference to remain in the race despite the setback, calling the situation a “bump in the road.” She insisted she was being transparent about the problems rather than trying to conceal them.
“If I were trying to hide something I would be here today telling you about it,” she said. “Most people are not going to stand in front of this many cameras and microphones to talk about fixing an error.”
The lieutenant governor said her campaign had worked with Spencer on preparing the finance reports and that she herself had received inaccurate information from the campaign manager. Rodriguez said the advertising campaign would begin running next week despite the payment issues.
Her opponent in the primary, state Senator Kelda Roys, was quick to criticize. Roys’ campaign said the issue contributed to a pattern showing that “Rodriguez is unprepared for the rigors of a general election or governing.” Joel Brennan, another Democratic candidate who previously served as secretary of the state’s Department of Administration under Governor Tony Evers, called the errors “disqualifying.”
The errors appear to have been systemic. An examination of Rodriguez’s January report revealed multiple instances of donations appearing to be double counted. The report included two $10,000 entries from physician Robert E. Haselow of Edina, Minnesota, both dated December 17, differing only by a space in the name formatting. Similarly, two $2,500 donations from Madison coach Kathleen Quinn appeared on the report from November 24, one with a middle initial and one without.
Rodriguez’s campaign filing is due Wednesday, setting a deadline for finalizing the corrections. The Democratic primary on August 11 will determine which candidate faces Republican Tom Tiffany, the heavy favorite in the Republican primary, in the November 3 general election. The race to succeed retiring Democratic Governor Tony Evers is one of five governorships Democrats are defending in states President Trump won in the 2024 presidential election.