The accounting problems that helped sink former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sara Rodriguez’s campaign may run deeper than previously known.
A newly filed campaign finance report submitted Monday night to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission contains an unusual disclosure involving the Wisconsin Forward Fund, the Madison-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit that spent heavily on issue advertising supporting Rodriguez’s candidacy.
On July 17, Rodriquez suspended her campaign amidst problems with her campaign finances. On July 22, the campaign sent a $52,900 reimbursement to the Wisconsin Forward fund with a brief but remarkable explanation.
“Funds borrowed from C4 account in error.”
That notation raises a host of new questions.
When did they receive the funds? Did they use them? Did the funds help the campaign float other bills that were coming due as the wheels were coming off?
Under state and federal campaign finance laws, 501(c)(4) organizations are prohibited from making direct contributions to candidate committees, and their political spending must remain legally independent from the campaigns they praise/support. Candidate committees likewise cannot treat nonprofit funds as campaign assets or coordinate their use.
Exactly what occurred here is not explained in the filing.
The reimbursement, first discovered by Dairyland Sentinel Monday night, appears to acknowledge that money associated with the nonprofit was treated, at least temporarily, as campaign funds before being repaid. How the campaign knew about those specific nonprofit funds, much less attempted to account for or borrow them, remains unclear.
Those questions are likely to draw scrutiny from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
The latest disclosure comes just weeks after Rodriguez’s gubernatorial campaign imploded under the weight of what she described as “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies.”
The collapse became public when a planned $1 million statewide television advertising buy never aired because media vendors had not been paid. Days later, Rodriguez suspended her campaign, less than a month before the Aug. 11 Democratic primary, after previously fired campaign manager Kara Spencer.
Subsequent reviews of Rodriguez’s campaign finance reports uncovered extensive accounting irregularities that dramatically overstated the campaign’s financial position.
Her January campaign finance report was filed in three different versions within a matter of hours. Reviews also identified hundreds of thousands of dollars in duplicate contribution entries, with identical donors reported giving the exact same amount multiple times on the same day.
Those reporting errors painted a far rosier financial picture than reality. Rodriguez initially reported raising roughly $1.18 million. By mid-July, the campaign reported just $34,990 in cash on hand.
When she withdrew from the race, Rodriguez called the accounting failures an “ongoing distraction” and said she could not allow them to overshadow the election.
Monday night’s filing suggests the campaign’s problems may have extended beyond duplicate entries and bookkeeping mistakes.
The campaign’s own disclosure that it had “borrowed” $52,900 from a 501(c)(4) organization before reimbursing the money introduces an entirely new set of legal and regulatory questions. Whether the notation reflects an internal accounting mistake, an impermissible transfer, or something else entirely is not explained in the filing.
Rodriguez’s withdrawal reshaped the Democratic primary but the Lieutenant Governor’s problems did not appear to end when her campaign collapsed.
originally published 9:31p 8/3/26
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