Your Daily Guide

💵 Campaign Finance Mistakes Lead to Firing

• Democratic gubernatorial candidate and current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez fired her campaign manager Kara Spencer over “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings." The Rodriguez campaign must turn in the next round of campaign finance reports to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission tomorrow.
• The campaign submitted the last round of campaign finance reports late. The reports were due by midnight on Jan. 15, but the campaign submitted their reports at 2:13 a.m. on Jan. 16, and then submitted two amended reports one at 3:23 a.m. and the next at 5:01 a.m.
• The Wisconsin State Journal identified what appears to be mistakes where several individuals are listed as donating the same amount multiple times with slight formatting differences between the entries. These reported donations put Rodriguez as the second most highly funded democratic candidate in the race at that time. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley led the field in donations but has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Rodriguez. [🔒Wisconsin State Journal, WisPolitics]

🚦John Nolen Drive Lane Shift Begins

• Traffic on John Nolen Drive moves to the new southbound lanes from the northbound lanes today. North Shore Drive will remain closed for two additional weeks.
• Attention bikers! Capital City Trail users will have to detour around Monona Bay since it’s closing from Lakeside Street to Broom Street. [Cap Times]

🚔 Former Madison Police Chief’s New Job

• Noble Wray, who served as Madison’s Police chief from 2004 to 2013, will sit on the recently created Wisconsin Commutations Board. Gov. Tony Evers made the board in early April to provide commutations, aka a modification of a criminal sentence, to reward positive growth from incarcerated people.
• Wray has experience with this area of the justice system from sitting on Ever’s Pardon Advisory Board from 2019-25. [Wisconsin Examiner]

⚖️ Shorewood Hills Village Board Taken to Court

• John Imes, the former Shorewood Hills Village board president, made a filing with the Dane County Circuit Court arguing for his reinstatement to the board. Imes was removed after the board found he “violated fiduciary duty and duty of honesty in conduct of public affairs” with regards to certain development proposals.
• Imes denies any wrongdoing and in his filing claims the board incorrectly used a law that allowed for removal of officials for “gross neglect of duty.” The village has until July 27 to file a response in court. [Cap Times]