Contact: Travis Hartwig – [email protected], 262-441-9062
(MADISON, WI) – When Sarah Godlewski first announced her run for Wisconsin State Treasurer, it was not the first time her and her husband, Maxim Duckworth, had been in the newspapers. Prior to selling their home in December of 2017 and moving to Wisconsin, they lived in the D.C. area where he worked as the Director of Portfolio Management and Trading for Constellation Energy Group.
In what has been called the “largest of its kind”, Maxim Duckworth and three of his business partners caused his firm, Constellation Energy Group, to pay a $245 million dollar fine to resolve allegations of market manipulation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.1 The fine caused the firm to go out of business and be bought by another firm. According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Duckworth was unemployed by the end of that year.
The Baltimore Sun reported that:
“Under the settlement, each of the four employees may not hold any position involving physical and financial energy trading at Constellation, a successor company or affiliate. The men are Michael Pavo and Jason Hughes, who were traders; their supervisor, Joseph Kirkpatrick; and Maxim Duckworth, the trading group’s managing director of portfolio management and trading.”
Mr. Duckworth’s activity is grossly unethical and harmed the businesses and taxpayers of the New England area. Wisconsin cannot afford to elect individuals that stand by such behavior to serve in elected leadership in our state.
According to Ms. Godlewski’s Statement of Economic Interest filing, her and Mr. Duckworth own 14 business together, 5 in the Washington D.C. metro-area, 3 in the United Kingdom, 2 in Colorado, and 1 in Texas, New York, Florida, and Wisconsin, respectively.
Beyond their business relations, Mr. Duckworth was also the largest contributor to Ms. Godlewski’s campaign until an October 12th amendment to the Sarah for Wisconsin July Campaign Finance Report changed the name of a contributor from Max Duckworth to Sarah Godlewski. If this donation was in fact from Mr. Duckworth, it would have been a clear violation of campaign finance contribution limits in the State of Wisconsin that cap contributions for the State Treasurer’s race at $20,000. Which begs the question “Who signed the check and actually made the contribution?”
“We must hold our elected officials to a higher standard, especially if they are going to handle our state’s finances as the next State Treasurer” said Travis Hartwig, candidate for State Treasurer. “Unlike my opponent, I have a record of private sector financial experience and have the reputation to serve as a trustworthy steward of taxpayer money.”
So far in the race for State Treasurer, Sarah has done very little to earn the trust of voters. She has actively mislead voters about her residency, hosted lavish out-of-state fund raisers for special interests groups, received multiple campaign ethics complaints and campaigned on a pledge to invest our schools trust funds in riskier investments.
“The values of these two individuals represent the slime in politics.” said Hartwig. “Rather than standing up for everyday people, they enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Disgusting.”
Hartwig, who grew up in East Troy, WI, holds a double major in Finance and Business Economics from Carroll University. He was a Mutual Fund Administrator at U.S. Bank Fund Services in downtown Milwaukee and owns a home in Oak Creek, WI.
Travis Hartwig is running for State Treasurer as a life-long conservative that believes Wisconsin taxpayers need a watchdog. He will use his experience to make the office more efficient and find ways to cut government spending because he believes that you do a better job of spending your hard-earned money than the government does.
