Sunshine State Sarah picked up this news from the St. Petersburg Times:
Look for an announcement soon about some top-tier political talent joining Herman Cain’s Florida campaign team.
Statewide chairs: Former St. Petersburg Mayor (and Mitt Romney supporter) Rick Baker; former State Sen. (and expected Rick Perry supporter) Carey Baker; former Jeb Bush chief Kathleen Shanahan; state Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood.
Tampa-based media consultant Adam Goodman is a senior strategist and media adviser and Arlene DiBenigno, a veteran of Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, and Rick Scott campaigns, is another senior strategist.
Deborah Cox-Roush, former state GOP vice chairwoman and current Hillsborough County Republican chairwoman, is director of county chairs.
Sarah also has this audio of Cain’s new radio ad:
Well, picking up Charlie Crist anything or anyone is a bad sign….
That’s a really dumb thing to say. The guy worked for the last 3 FL governors’ campaigns. Seriously, the guilt by association around here is totally paranoid.
I would leave Mr. Orange off my resume if I were him…just sayin!
Depends. Maybe for his Senate debacle. Anyways, “campaign professionals” are in the business of getting candidates elected. If Crist was as much of a douche when running for governor as for Senate, maybe that speaks really well for the operative.
Either way, seems like someone who has some clue about and experience with the Florida electoral landscape. Which sounds like what Cain needs.
I want to hear what Stacy thinks of this team. He probably knows a lot more about them than I do (which is to say I do not know any of them).
The Campaign Manager’s Conundrum: if, like Michigan, Florida loses its delegates (disenfranchising an entire state), why spend $$$MONEY$$$ there? On the flip side, like Michigan, if the GOP’s Annointed One (Romney) wins and gets a majority, if not all of the delegates and gets to use them at the convention, how much $$$MONEY$$$ will be enough?
I personally know Carey Baker. Great guy.
So O!s associates Rev Wright, Ayers, etc. have nothing to tell us about his actual views?
Yes, they do. Now, your challenge is to show why this is relevant to some campaign operative who has worked for lots of people, i.e., why that analogy is relevant to this. Because so far, all this comment of yours is doing is changing the subject.
A good start would be to talk about what Arlene did during these campaigns. You could be correct, and Arlene is a shadowy figure that influenced Crist’s douchebaggery. But there’s no evidence of that in this post or in the comments.
Even if Florida loses its delegates to the GOP convention, it’s worth spending money there.
First, primary campaigns do feed into general election results.
Second, that will be especially true if the candidate campaigned in a state during a primary that “didn’t count.” It’s like telling that state’s voters “OK, so my party screwed up and left you out, but I didn’t.”
Florida is big enough that even half of Florida is a big deal. And knappster is right on the politics, which is why Florida risked losing half its delegates.
You conflate “associate” with “campaign volunteer/employee,” which is not correct. My associates may inform you about me; my choices of workers in a limited pool with a limited time to work, less so.
The delegate count does matter, especially if it ends up a longer, two-man race. The early states will now lose half their delegates for moving up too early, and they must award them proportionately. This means wins in these states won’t gain much of a delegate lead.
The gamble these states (besides NH and Iowa, who are defending what they consider their turf) are making is fewer votes at the convention (on the first ballot only) in exchange for greater perceived influence on the race by being early. For instance, Florida was the clincher for McCain last time – not in the sense of delegates won, but having vanquished all serious competition.
The Romney strategy envisions a longer race this time. He is well organized in many states and prepared where most candidates haven’t even visited yet. He is ready for a war of attrition.
This is why some speak of “inevitability” with Romney stuck around 25% support: the challenger probably needs a knockout of Romney early, or the superior funding and organization will win in the end, and no one has shown the ability to take him out.
But especially for early states, there’s a lot more at stake than simply delegates. Early on, it’s all about momentum and creating a band wagon. And that doesn’t necessarily follow delegate count.
And it works both ways. Candidates without momentum are more likely to drop out. This could be especially important for the not-Romney vote…basically consolidating it as soon as possible wherever it’s going to consolidate.
[…] leads in SC and Iowa are within the margin of error. Cain clearly has some work to do in FL, (and he is), and we all know he won’t win in NH, so no need to worry about […]
As one of the few people commenting on this post who has actually met all these people, let me just say two things:
(1) This is a solid list. Heavyweight names, good mix of expertise. It’s a “real” campaign team, varsity level.
(2) This isn’t like Perry hiring a bunch of Crist flunkies. Anyone who worked with Crist did so on his Governor’s race, and weren’t the “true believers” who stuck with him after he left the party.
If you’re a Cain supporter, you should be happy with this FL team.