Access at Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s Milwaukee campaign event on Thursday, September 24, was not uniform: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mary Spicuzza was denied entry, while other journalists from the paper were admitted.
The campaign told Spicuzza she could not attend, describing her as a “liberal activist” and saying it welcomed “balanced journalists from across Wisconsin.”
The campaign did admit another Journal Sentinel journalist, Jessie Opoien, and a Journal Sentinel photographer, as well as reporters from WISN and CBS 58. Spicuzza has recently covered FBI inquiries into 2020 Milwaukee election records, according to WUWM.
A Pledge Two Days Earlier
At the Wisconsin Counties Association conference on September 22, Tiffany was asked about press credentials after national decisions to restrict access for some media outlets. He said he did not plan to bar journalists from his events and told attendees, “I believe in open, free press.” He also said he found reporting he considered “slanted” frustrating, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel executive editor Greg Borowski said the newsroom is committed to covering the campaign and candidates fairly.
Prior Friction With the Reporter
The blocked event wasn't the first sign of tension between the Tiffany campaign and Spicuzza specifically. On September 9, Spicuzza and colleague Molly Beck reported that Tiffany had ignored three separate campaign inquiries asking whether he supported Donald Trump's effort to alter mail-in voting rules in Wisconsin, according to the same account from the campaign's own advisory record on WisPolitics. That report noted more than 66,000 mail-in ballots were already en route to Wisconsin voters when Trump sought Supreme Court intervention on the matter.
Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive, was Tiffany's opponent in the debate.
The Democratic Governors Association also weighed in, releasing a statement on the incident. Spokesperson Izzi Levy said Wisconsin voters deserve to know where gubernatorial candidates stand on the issues, adding that Tiffany is standing in the way of press coverage and lashing out at the press for doing their jobs. Levy also said Tiffany has five votes to continue the war driving gas prices to historic highs.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Limited Access
The credential denial is not an isolated episode. In early September, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation canceled its planned October 9 gubernatorial debate for the first time in 36 years, without specifying whether Tiffany, Crowley, or both had failed to accept the invitations, according to CBS 58. Tiffany said a single debate was sufficient, leaving the candidates with only one scheduled broadcast debate.
The campaign's decision to restrict Journal Sentinel reporters also comes amid broader national debates over media access, arriving shortly after former President Donald Trump revoked White House credentials for journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Reporters had explicitly asked Tiffany about those White House credential revocations at the Wisconsin Counties Association conference days before the Milwaukee event.
What a Wisconsin Press-Access Ruling Says
A separate case decided in 2021 offers limited legal context: the Seventh Circuit said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was not required to grant every media outlet access to every press conference, according to the court’s opinion. That case involved government press events, not a campaign event. The decision does not answer whether campaigns must admit reporters to their events or whether Wisconsin’s open-meetings law applies to them.
A Competitive Race With High Stakes
Tiffany secured Trump's endorsement in January 2026 and has since picked up backing from all of his Republican colleagues from Wisconsin in the House, according to the candidate's Wikipedia entry.
Tiffany was involved in a plane incident that ended in an emergency water landing on Lake Wausau after a campaign event.
On the policy front, Crowley has sought to draw a contrast with Tiffany on transparency itself, unveiling a government ethics proposal that would bar Wisconsin elected officials from stock trading and eliminate a statutory loophole allowing state legislators to delete public records. Tiffany's campaign has also leaned into aggressive advertising, branding Crowley as “Data Center David” over his stance on artificial intelligence facilities.
