Ben Carson is having another bad week. He got reams of bad press for going home to do his laundry after Iowa instead of continuing to campaign immediately—and he gave Ted Cruz’s campaign an opening to tell caucus-goers that Carson was dropping out of the race, so they should vote for someone else. Carson finished a distant fourth in Iowa. Now, he’s laying off 50 campaign staffers because he’s running out of money:
Salaries are being significantly reduced. Carson’s traveling entourage will shrink to only a handful of advisers. And instead of flying on private jets, Carson may soon return to commercial flights.
The employees being released — about half of Carson’s campaign — mostly work in field operations and at his headquarters in Northern Virginia.
Carson’s big cutbacks are coming even though he raised more money than any other Republican. His problem is, as David Nir wrote:
Ben Carson’s campaign has been completely exposed as a grifty fraud: It spent millions more than it raised last quarter, mostly on scammy (and expensive) direct mail fundraising. Carson's entire operation is irrelevant at this point, except to the people he’s ripped off.
Maybe add the people who are now losing their jobs as people to whom the campaign is—or was—relevant. But they too will now have plenty of time to do their laundry.
New Hampshire, where Carson is polling at the bottom of the heap, could be the final blow to his pretensions of relevance.