Politico: Major McCain Staff Shakeup in S. Carolina, Perhaps Due to SC Poll (see other post)
The Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported today that the official campaign has had a shake-up of its staff in the critical early-voting state of South Carolina - ironically, one of the three states that Wednesday’s fundraising e-mail cited as one where McCain was leading (and accurately so).
Martin wrote on the Politico.com site, in a post titled McCain fires another early state operative:
“After a disappointing first-quarter fundraising finish, McCain shook up his finance team. He appears to be taking similar steps with parts of his political organization now.
Three weeks after firing his New Hampshire director because of performance issues, McCain has let go a South Carolina field staffer for the same reason.
As first reported on the South Carolina blog, “A Daily Shot,” Blake Montgomery has been let go. The young aide was helping to organize the central part of the Palmetto State for McCain’s campaign.
Asked about the move, McCain spokesman Danny Diaz said “it was not a good fit for the campaign.” A McCain aide termed the move “performance-related.”
But the aide denied that two other recent losses in McCain’s South Carolina organization were related to Montgomery’s departure. Political Director Brad Henry and field staffer Brian Haskins, both of whom have recently left McCain’s camp, are still part of the family, the aide said, but are both now working toward the likely gubernatorial run of state AG, and McCain backer, Henry McMaster.
The McCain aide said that their decision to fire underperforming staffers in New Hampshire and South Carolina was not part of a broader shake-up, but were rather targeted moves to make changes to improve the organization.”
So what is Campaignia thinking about all this?
Well, it certainly isn’t good news, when staffers are fired. This news is coming on the heels of the departure of the SC political director last week, as noted above. In addition, a new independent poll of registered SC voters has concluded that McCain is mired in a three-way tie with Giuliani and Romney. (See the other post for more on the Winthrop poll).
Come visit the main site - www.campaignia.org - for more on Campaign 2008 and campaigns in general.