Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Shakeups in the Carson Campaign, What Do They Mean?

In 1980 John Sears was campaign manager for Ronald Reagan.  He got into complex insider squabbles with various staff members early in the primary season and was replaced by William Casey.  Mr. Sears firing followed speculation by outsiders (speculation possibly encouraged by Mr. Sears) that Governor Reagan was really just a mouthpiece for the real vision of John Sears.  The rest is history.

Last week turmoil within the Ben Carson Presidential campaign staff resulted in the campaign manager, communications director and at least 20 other staff members leaving the team.  While the campaign has been raising money at an excellent rate keeping Dr. Carson near the top of the GOP cash competition there is concern that Armstrong Williams is using the campaign as essentially a moneymaker and is causing issues in public. 

Make no mistake about it....while the money generated for the campaign is great news for Dr. Carson, turmoil among staff is not good.  Not 4 weeks before Iowa.  There is nothing good about this.  When it is brought up, Carson supporters have liked to point to 1980.  The difference between this and 1980 is a couple of things.  First of all in 1980 the Reagan campaign didn't lose all of it's primary senior staff right before the primaries.  John Sears was quickly replaced and the staff turmoil essentially went away, suggesting very strongly that he in fact was the actual problem.  Secondly, Reagan was the front runner and wasn't facing 11 other contenders.  Neither of those elements are true about the Carson campaign. 

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