Last week, Mandela Barnes called out Tom Tiffany and Sara Rodriguez for accepting tens of thousands of dollars from We Energies—the company that continues to jack up rates on Wisconsin families and attempted to pass data center costs onto ratepayers.As reported by the Milwaukee Courier, Sara Rodriguez received a $12,800 contribution from We Energies after she voted to create a tax loophole for utility companies. Rodriguez was one of just 4 Democrats to vote for the bill. Evers vetoed the bill explicitly because Wisconsin would “lose millions in taxes owed by utility companies.”During her time in the state legislature, Sara Rodriguez was one of the top 4%—or the third most—conservative Democrats according to the American Conservative Union.While his opponents cash in checks from utility monopolies—Mandela Barnes isn’t taking a dime in corporate PAC money and continues to campaign on his bold plans to Freeze the Rates and take on the greedy utility monopolies that are ripping off Wisconsin families.See more below:Milwaukee Courier: We Energies gave Sara Rodriguez thousands after vote favoring utility tax loopholeDemocratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez has previously accepted political donations from We Energies while crossing party lines to support giving the utility company a tax loophole.Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor, took three donations from the corporate PAC of WEC Energy, the parent company of We Energies, totaling $13,800, between 2020 and 2023.In 2021, she was one of just four Democrats who voted with every single Republican on AB 191 — a bill to repeal the personal property tax. Gov. Tony Evers vetoed it, warning it could exempt utility personal property from ad valorem taxes and cost Wisconsin “tens of millions in general fund tax revenue, if not more.” In his veto statement, Evers specifically flagged “the potential for the state to lose millions in taxes owed by utility companies.”After this vote, in 2022, Rodriguez accepted a $12,800 contribution from WEC Energy.Utility costs have become a prominent issue in the race for governor. Wisconsin’s utility monopolies have nation-leading profits, but continue to increase costs for Wisconsin ratepayers, causing a quarter of Wisconsin households to miss utility payments and more than a third to cut back on food and medicine to keep the lights on.We Energies recorded over a billion dollars in income last year and paid their executives over $32 million, while customers report increases of more than $300 per month.Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Barnes takes aim at Rodriguez for accepting utility PAC donationsWith 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.”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.Barnes has made energy costs a focus of his campaign, following Democratic victories in other states with a similar platform.