Bice: Cooke says she's a political outsider but raked in nearly $200K for political work

Democratic Congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke wants voters to know that she was born on a farm, works as a waitress and, perhaps most importantly, is a political outsider.

"You know, I don’t come from a career background in politics," Cooke told the Wisconsin Examiner earlier this year. "I feel like there’s a lot of people in our district that want to have a representative that has lived experiences that they can connect to, I think career politicians make folks a little bit more leery."

Cooke even told a radio host last year that she hates fundraising, saying, "I mean it's unfortunately a part of our political process and our political system. It’s like who raises the most dollars is the most viable, right?"

But here is a part of Cooke's resume that she doesn't play up:

In the years leading up to her first campaign in 2021, Cooke worked as a professional fundraiser for candidates across the country. Cooke is one of four Democrats vying to take on Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Prairie du Chien in November. She lost in the Democratic primary for the same seat two years ago.

Beginning in late 2012, Cooke, 36, served as finance director for four congressional races in Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and California, raising $3.7 million in one of those contests. In 2015, she registered Cooke Strategy LLC, a Democratic political and fundraising consulting firm. FEC records show the firm advised eight state and federal campaigns between 2015 and 2021.

Overall, she and her firm were paid more than $190,000 for their work by a dozen committees and campaigns.

Along with all that, Cooke served on the steering committee for Opportunity Wisconsin, a liberal nonprofit active in congressional races.

Republicans say Cooke is not being straightforward about her past political work.

"Rebecca Cooke spent her career as a paid political activist electing radical leftists," said Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Alex Obolensky, the campaign manager for Cooke, acknowledged that she "spent her early 20s" working on political campaigns, though her work carried over into her 30s.

But Obolensky downplayed her political work, noting it was just one of her interests. She also previously ran Red's Mercantile, an Eau Claire shop that closed in 2022. She also founded a small nonprofit in 2016 called the Red Letter Grant that provides support for new female business owners.

"She moved back home to Wisconsin in 2015," Obolensky said. "While building her small business and launching a non-profit, she would help political candidates raise money or launch their campaigns from time to time. It was not consistent work, but it did help pay the bills."

He added, "She has worked in politics but she is not a career politician."

That's a dig at state Rep. Katrina Shankland, her main Democratic opponent. Shankland, 36, was first elected in 2013 and her current term ends in January.

Shankland's campaign brushed off the criticism.

"Katrina is proud of her record of delivering results for the people of Wisconsin. As a candidate who has won tough elections and passed 225 bipartisan bills into law, she understands that serving in public office hinges on holding the public trust," said James Cersonsky, Shankland's campaign manager.

"Transparency and accountability are key to that, and voters deserve to know the truth about the candidates asking for their vote.”

Obolensky said Cooke is not deceiving anyone.

Her background, he said, is rooted in agriculture, non-profit work and the small business that she’s devoted herself to over the last eight years. He added that Cooke has not spent a dozen years in the Legislature and hasn't worked full time for any campaign, other than her own, for a decade.

"Any consulting work she picked up helped to make ends meet as she built her business and her non-profit," Obolensky said.

Between 2012 and 2014, FEC records show that Cooke did fundraising work for Democratic candidates Jim Graves of Minnesota, Joe Miklosi of Colorado and Syad Taj of Michigan, all of whom lost or withdrew from their races, and Rep. Raul Ruiz of California. Cooke said on her defunct campaign website that she helped raise $3.7 million for Ruiz.

Ruiz is endorsing Cooke in the Democratic primary.

For her work for the four Democrats, Cooke was paid $77,543 in salary and consulting fees and another $10,699 in expenses.

After forming Cooke Strategy, she worked for five federal candidates, two state candidates and a leadership political action committee. Among those for whom she did were former state Rep. Dana Wachs, a Democrat who was defeated in his gubernatorial bid in 2018; Appeals Court Judge Joanne Kloppenburg, who ran unsuccessfully for the Supreme Court in 2016; and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, who lost his congressional bid in 2016.

Records show that between 2015 and 2021, Cooke Strategy was paid $67,191 by federal candidates and committees and $37,148 by state candidates, meaning the firm received more than $104,000 during that period.

She has also done work for Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Small Business Development Center. It is not known how much she was paid for that work. Her financial statement says Cook Strategy made $15,000 in 2023.

All in all, though, not bad take-home pay for a supposed side gig.

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

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rebecca Cooke says she's an outsider but raked in consulting cash