Bice: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes says he won't take money from corporations, but that wasn't the case last year

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is all against taking contributions from political action committees run by corporations.

Even if he used to be for them. 

Shortly after announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate last month, Barnes posted that he would not be accepting any corporate PAC money in the race.  

“I want to be clear — I’m not taking donations from corporate PACs, which means we need people like you with us," Barnes tweeted on July 20. 

The post sounded a lot like something he had written three years earlier, though he was much more definitive this time. 

"Our campaign is powered by real people, not corporate interests," Barnes tweeted in July 2018. "That's what sets us apart."

Got it? Corporations, bad; people, good. 

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But a review of his campaign records shows that Barnes received seven contributions from corporate PACs totaling $6,450 since 2014. 

In fact, the majority of that cash came just last year. He received four donations from corporate PACs for a total of $5,500. 

Among the businesses chipping into Barnes' campaign war chest in 2020 were BNSF Railway ($2,500), Centene Corp. ($1,500), Johnson Controls Inc. ($1,000) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($500).

The donations from Johnson Controls and BNSF came in December 2020. Johnson Controls is the only Wisconsin-based firm of the four.

The first-term Democrat did not receive any PAC donations from a business in the first half of 2021. 

Asked to explain the past donations in light of his current stance, the Barnes campaign merely repeated his campaign pledge. 

"Mandela’s campaigns have always been about putting the people first, and in this campaign we’re doubling down on everyday Wisconsinites by proudly rejecting campaign contributions from corporate PACs,” said Kory Kozloski, Barnes' campaign manager.

Barnes' campaign officials did try to put the past donations in context. 

The seven corporate donations, they said, represent a smal portion of his contributions over the last eight years. Specifically, the total amount given by those firms make up less than 0.5% of the more than $1.4 million he has raised since 2014.

Overall, they said, Barnes did not rely on corporations to fund his past campaigns. 

In 2018, for example, his campaign for lieutenant governor took in some 2,489 total contributions. 

“Mandela is proud to have been supported by thousands of grassroots donors from all over the state of Wisconsin during his campaigns," Kozloski said. "It’s inaccurate to isolate seven contributions over eight years as a representative sample of Barnes's fundraising."

Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.