After disclosing a  crisis in her campaign for governor this week, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez remains committed to staying in the contest for the Democratic nomination, a spokesperson for her campaign said Wednesday.

The Rodriguez campaign has lined up a public relations and crisis communications firm, Pod3Strategies, whose CEO, Christina Freundlich, has been fielding calls from reporters this week and spoke briefly with the Wisconsin Examiner Wednesday.

Rodriguez met with residents of the Madison YWCA on Tuesday, outlining her campaign’s policy positions and answering questions. The campaign was working to file its next round of campaign finance reports by the Wednesday midnight deadline, Freundlich said.

Meanwhile, Citizen Action of Wisconsin announced its endorsement of state Rep. Francesca Hong Wednesday in the governor’s race. The grassroots advocacy organization cited Hong’s positions on data centers, healthcare and hospital costs, utility costs and a minimum wage increase.

“In our intensive grassroots endorsement process Citizen Action leaders concluded that Francesca Hong is the best candidate to meet the moment by restoring a vibrant popular democracy that acts in the interest of average Wisconsinites, not the corporate monopolies that dominate state government,” said Robert Kraig, the organization’s executive director.

Wednesday was also the deadline for campaign finance reports for state offices. Reports covering fundraising and spending from January through June were due by 12 midnight.

A massive shortfall in the Rodriguez campaign along with inaccuracies in the reports that the campaign filed in January rocked the Democratic primary contest this week days before the Wednesday deadline. Rodriguez fired her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, on Sunday and at a press conference Monday said she would continue her campaign while working to rectify the errors that had been committed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that Spencer had a history of financial problems prior to being named to her campaign job.

Rodriguez said Monday that the campaign’s financial problems surfaced for her when a statewide ad did not start to run on TV a week ago Tuesday. The campaign had put out a press release announcing it was making a $1 million ad buy. 

A review of the campaign’s last finance report filed in January showed numerous duplicate transactions. Rodriguez said Monday that her report this week would show about $200,000 in cash on hand and that she has raised nearly $1 million over the course of the campaign.

On Wednesday, another rival of Rodriguez for the Democratic nomination, former Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, held a news conference about his campaign finance report and flagged the document’s top line — $665,000 raised from Jan. 1 to June 30. Brennan said he’s raised $1.22 million since entering the race in December.  

Brennan spoke outside the office building in downtown Madison that houses the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, which collects the finance reports.

Brennan described his campaign’s infrastructure, with a fundraising team and with reports compiled with the assistance of a compliance firm, a lawyer, the campaign manager and the campaign treasurer.

“It goes through all of those layers before it gets submitted here to the state of Wisconsin. That’s what responsible management is like in a campaign,” Brennan said. “That’s what we do in government.”

In an account published Wednesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that an unnamed Rodriguez campaign official was asked whether the campaign treasurer had signed off on the January finance report or had raised questions about the $1 million ad buy.

According to the newspaper, the official said the treasurer “is a figurehead and volunteer role and was not involved in day to day finance operations.”

Brennan mentioned that description and, drawing a contrast, introduced his own campaign treasurer, Janet Piraino. He described her as a trusted individual whom he had known for decades. But he also emphasized that it was up to the campaign to establish “the infrastructure around [its financial reports] to ensure that what they are doing is going to be accurate, is going to be right, is going to reflect the will of the donors and the will of the people of Wisconsin.”

He said that the first money raised in his campaign was spent to establish that infrastructure and ensure the professionals responsible for fundraising and reporting were paid.

Asked directly whether Rodriguez should drop out of the race, Brennan demurred.

“That’s for Sara to decide. That’s for her and her family and the people around her,” he said.

But he argued the missteps in the Rodriguez campaign would be used against her in the general election if she is nominated as the Democratic candidate, and would interfere with campaign messaging around issues including healthcare costs, public education and other topics.

“If you can’t demonstrate competence when it comes to running your campaign, that shouldn’t give people a lot of confidence in your ability to manage the hugely complex areas around state government,” Brennan said.

Another candidate for the Democratic nomination, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes declined Tuesday to say Rodriguez should quit the race.

Barnes spoke to reporters after a campaign event critiquing the role of money in politics. He was asked if the Rodriguez campaign’s financial errors were “disqualifying” and how voters should assess them in evaluating her candidacy.

“I think that is up to her campaign to figure out,” Barnes said. “It’s up to voters to decide if that campaign will ultimately be the strongest or not, if they’re able to communicate that or not. But that’s a decision that should be left up to them.”

Also running in the Democratic primary is state Sen. Kelda Roys, who held an event focused on healthcare in Milwaukee Wednesday.

This report has been updated. 

Missy Hughes suspended her campaign for Wisconsin governor Monday and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez in the August Democratic primary.

Hughes, the former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO, called Rodriguez “the best candidate we can put forward to win in November, and to build an enduring coalition to address our state’s most pressing challenges.”

In her announcement, Hughes complimented all of the  Democrats in the race for governor. “Each of the candidates seeks to serve the state, and the nobility of that willingness is without comparison,” she said. But she called Rodriguez, one of three Democrats who have pulled ahead in recent weeks, the “best positioned” of the field.

Hughes said her choice was based on her assessment of Rodriguez’s experience along with what she said was a shared belief in the need for a Democratic candidate who can appeal to a large cross section of voters. Rodriguez, she said, “is the best candidate we can put forward to win in November, and to build an enduring coalition to address our state’s most pressing challenges.”

At a press conference Monday afternoon with Rodriguez, Hughes said she agreed “100%” in response to a reporter’s question whether other Democratic hopefuls should drop out and coalesce behind Rodriguez.

“The bottom line was that we have a great, great responsibility at this moment when we’re looking for a whole transition for the Wisconsin government, and we’re in very, very difficult times,” Hughes said. Acknowledging her own stauts as a first-time candidate, she said, “I saw the opportunity to coalesce behind a candidate who I know will win in November.”

Having been in conferences with Gov. Tony Evers during her years at the WEDC, Hughes said she believes Rodriguez displays “the qualities that we need in the governor, and someone who is willing to listen, someone who has good ideas, but is willing to be challenged.”

Rodriguez, Hughes told reporters, shares her optimism about Wisconsin as well as her concerns about what voters are seeking.

“What I always wanted to come from this race was for Wisconsinites to understand that we have something incredibly valuable that we have created in this state, in our communities, in our schools, in our universities, our tech colleges, our tribal partners,” Hughes said. “We have so much to invest in and so much to think about for the future. We have an incredibly strong foundation. We do not need to tear everything down. We need to build on our foundation.”

Rodriguez complimented Hughes for how she exited the contest.

“She didn’t have to endorse anyone, she could have walked away and let this race play out, but instead she made a choice,” Rodriguez said of Hughes. “It’s a hard one because she believes leadership involves making choices. I respect that enormously, and I do not take that lightly.”

Hughes said Rodriguez will “create a coalition that allows us to create deep policy and enable the large changes that we need to make in the state,” including funding public schools and addressing healthcare costs. “We need someone who brings a lot of people together, so that we can make those changes.”

State Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee), an early Rodriguez backer, told the Wisconsin Examiner Tuesday morning that she wasn’t in on the “behind the scenes” action that preceded Hughes’ decision to end her campaign and endorse Rodriguez. But she said she believes the Wisconsin Democratic Convention helped set the stage for the decision.

Rodriguez finished at the top of a WisPolitics straw poll and Hughes finished with just a handful of votes,  but Sinicki said that struck her as less significant.

“It’s not so much the straw poll,” Sinicki said. “The excitement around campaign was not there.”

While she considers Rodriguez a friend, Sinicki said she made her decision to endorse the lieutenant governor on the basis of her experience.

“When you look at her credentials and history, she has the most executive experience of any of other candidates,” having held private sector positions as a nurse in healthcare as well as serving in Wisconsin’s executive branch, Sinicki said. “She’s very good on all the issues that I support,” she added. “Her background on healthcare is essential right now.”

Hughes entered the Democratic primary contest about two months after Gov. Tony Evers announced he would not seek a third term.

She had hoped to gain an edge in a field of seven top-tier Democratic hopefuls in the governor’s race through her experience both in government and in the private sector, but not as a previously elected politician. She campaigned on the idea of building Wisconsin’s economy in order to strengthen the state’s support of public education and other state services.

In her six years as WEDC CEO and secretary, Hughes helped reshape the agency to emphasize small business and community economic development along with its mission of supporting larger companies relocating to or expanding in Wisconsin.

She was the face of Wisconsin’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and led the state’s renegotiation of tax incentives that under former Gov. Scott Walker had been promised to Foxconn for a factory that never fulfilled its promise  to build high-tech flatscreens in Racine County.

Prior to the WEDC, Hughes served as general counsel at Organic Valley, a national cooperative owned by organic dairy farmers.