The News & Observer's Under the Dome reports that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham (left) has reshuffled his campaign staff as the runoff against Elaine Marshall (right) looms on June 22.
Gone is Rick Fromberg, the campaign manager, who left shortly after the primary...Also gone is Angela Guyadeen, Cunningham's communications director..."We retooled a little," said campaign spokesman Jared Leopold. "We are looking at a little different kind of campaign for the runoff, lower turnout, less of an air war, more grassroots. We've done some restructuring."
Given the state of the DSCC-backed Cunningham campaign -- Marshall just picked up the endorsement of former rival Ken Lewis (center) yesterday -- and the hints that the tap$ running dry (Cunningham loaned his campaign $86K near the end of the primary), you wonder why he's moving forward.
How about that new definition: "meltdown" = retool. I can't say I blame them for dumping Fromberg, though. I'm a relative political small fry and my interaction with him regarding the liveblog was (sadly) proof enough that he was out of his depth and poorly represented his candidate.
The only way for the Cunningham campaign to build support at this late stage is to go <t>way</t> negative against Secretary Marshall, and that only helps Richard Burr, the horrible right-wing Senator that the party is trying to unseat. I may not be a political sophisticate (as Beltway minds tend to view those of us in the Cheetos-stained-PJs set), but it seems to me that earning the ire of a large number of fellow NC Dems on a downward spiral campaign only hurts your chances in gaining party support the <t>next time</t> Cal wants to run for office.
But what do I know? BTW, I'd say the same thing if Marshall was in Cunningham's position; it seems desperate and unnecessary at this point. I hope those in the DSCC who are pained that more people selected a different candidate in the primary can just get a grip and learn from this experience. I won't hold my breath.