Ex-Staffer on Roseanne’s Presidential Campaign Claims She Never Got Paid

In late January, the comedienne and former sitcom star Roseanne Barr declared her intention to run for president on the Green Party line. Ms. Barr’s Green Party bid ultimately proved unsuccessful after Massachusetts doctor Jill Stein secured the party’s nomination at its convention in July. Now, Ms. Barr is continuing her quest for the White House as a candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan as her running mate. However, Ms. Barr may not have tied up all the loose ends associated with her first campaign.

Anita Stewart, who said she served as Press Secretary Ms. Barr’s Green Party bid, told Politicker she is owed $4,300 for her work on the campaign. Ms. Stewart claimed she has spent nearly the past three months fighting to get the money Ms. Barr agreed to pay her and said the delay in payment has caused her immense hardships. She said the situation is especially egregious given the fact Ms. Barr has made millions through her comedy and TV career and ranked as the second-highest-paid woman in showbiz (behind only Oprah Winfrey) during the final two years of her eponymous sitcom in the late nineties.

“Right now, I’m living below poverty level wages,” Ms. Stewart said adding that she has been unable to take care of medical expenses and has had trouble maintaining her car, which she needs to travel to and from work in the small town where she lives about fifty miles outside of Tampa, Florida.