MADISON – With six weeks to go in the Democratic primary for governor, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is publicly taking aim at his successor Sara Rodriguez as the race turns into a three-way battle.
Barnes on Thursday blasted Rodriguez for her role in accepting nearly $14,000 in campaign donations from the political action committee associated with WEC Energy Group, parent company of Milwaukee utility provider We Energies, between 2020 and 2023. The bulk of the donations were raised by Rodriguez when she was running with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in his 2022 reelection bid.
WEC Energy Group’s PAC donated nearly $13,000 to Rodriguez’s campaign in 2022. In 2021, Rodriguez voted in the state Assembly to pass a bill vetoed by Evers to eliminate the state’s personal property tax. The way it was written, the bill could have unintentionally reduced the amount of taxes utility providers pay, Evers said in his veto message. The personal property tax was ultimately repealed as part of a bipartisan shared revenue deal in 2023.
“Unlike my opponents, I’ve never been bought by the utilities that are jacking up rates. I don’t take their money and I don’t vote for their tax loopholes,” Barnes said in a post on X, citing a story from the Milwaukee Courier, which first reported on Rodriguez’s vote on the personal property tax bill.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the contributions to Rodriguez’s campaign earlier this month.
In response to Barnes’ criticism, a Rodriguez spokeswoman said, “Campaign contributions have never determined how Lt. Governor Rodriguez has voted.”
“The Lt. Governor has spent her career in jobs where people have trusted her to do the right thing, and that’s how she’s always approached public service. As governor, she’ll lower utility costs, hold utility companies accountable, and put Wisconsin families first,” campaign spokeswoman Ronja Abel said.
“Mandela Barnes walked away from the Evers administration to run for Senate and lose to Ron Johnson. Lt. Governor Rodriguez stepped up to join the Democratic ticket with Governor Evers and win. Now, Barnes is taking the low road and making a false political attack that Governor Evers and Lt. Governor Rodriguez were bought off. Nothing could be farther from the truth and he should know that.”
The new criticism is the first time Barnes has publicly gone after a primary opponent in the nearly seven months since he first entered the race for governor. Since then, Barnes has consistently led in polling alongside state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, and has said he was focused on the general election.
In recent weeks, Rodriguez has rallied momentum as an alternative to Barnes and Hong, who are viewed as more liberal than Rodriguez. At the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s annual state convention, Rodriguez won a straw poll of party delegates while Hong received the second-highest number of votes. Barnes came in sixth out of seven candidates.
Barnes has made energy costs a focus of his campaign, following Democratic victories in other states with a similar platform.
An analysis of campaign finance records shows Rodriguez has received a total of $13,800 from the WEC Energy Group PAC.
Rodriguez received $500 as an Assembly candidate in 2020. She then received $12,800 in October 2022, after officially joining the ticket with Evers for that year’s midterm election after winning the August lieutenant governor primary (Barnes did not seek reelection that year, opting instead to run for U.S. Senate).
Under Wisconsin law, a party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor may pool their campaign accounts after the primary and effectively run as one operation. At that point, WEC Energy Group had already maxed out to Evers’ 2022 campaign fund.
Rodriguez received another $500 from the PAC as lieutenant governor in 2023.
The PAC has contributed a total of $136,000 to Evers’ campaign from 2019 to 2025.
A Barnes spokesman did not respond to whether the former lieutenant governor also considers the governor to be “bought by the utilities.”
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany, who has received about $11,500 from the political action committee linked to We Energies, criticized both Barnes and Rodriguez for the actions of the state’s Public Service Commission while they were lieutenant governors.
“They didn’t stand with ratepayers then, and they won’t now,” he said in a post on X.
Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com and jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Barnes takes aim at Rodriguez for accepting utility PAC donations
Reporting by Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
