Police are continuing the investigation into a State Street robbery that has been dubbed “Wisconsin’s Watergate.”
The campaign office of the Assembly Democrats, 122 State St., was robbed twice last week, with more than $5,000 in equipment stolen from the office.
Tuesday night, a laptop was taken from the 5th floor office. The office was unlocked because a worker was present in an adjacent suite.
According to police reports, the following night, an intruder broke a window and unlocked the office door. Two laptops were stolen.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin declined to comment on the incident.
Assembly Minority leader Spencer Black, D-Madison, said the police have not identified any suspects but are continuing to investigate the burglary.
Black would not speculate on potential suspects.
“Whenever a political office is broke into — especially around election — people immediately think of Watergate,” Black said. “We don’t know who did it, we are leaving the investigation up to the police.”
The laptops have not yet been recovered, but Black said he does not believe they contained sensitive campaign material.
“They were used largely to keep track of Assembly Democratic candidates and explaining why various Assembly Democrats should be elected,” Black said. “Basically there were position papers on the laptop.”
Several Assembly Democrats were unavailable for comment or unwilling to speculate on the robbery.
A spokesman for the Assembly Democrats Campaign Committee said the break-in was nothing like Watergate and suggested the robbery was not even a big issue.
Another anonymous source suggested the robbery was not politically motivated, noting the office is on State Street and that intoxicated students could be to blame for the robbery.
A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee said she was unaware the office had been robbed and did not return phone calls about the incident.