Rumors are flying about more senior level departures from the unofficial presidential campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and longtime Republican political operative, is staying put. Reached in Croatia, Matalin said she chats daily with the Thompson organization and remains 100 percent on board
For those of us who have encountered Mills on Capitol Hill, there will be a lot of raised eyebrows. Mills is something of a local legend in the Capitol Hill press corps - very smart, tenacious but fair questioner, relentless energy. He somehow manages to have a good relationship with lawmakers while asking them how they got their hand caught in the cookie jar, pointing out that their answer contradicts what they said yesterday with a friendly smile on his face.
Beware of hyperventilating pundits who are calling it a "shakeup". Collamore and company were brought in to build this thing, not run it. Just like you get a team to design and build the race car, now you need a team to drive it and keep it in the race. The "gurus" are now stepping in, with a campaign that is apparently assembled to Fred's specifications. So now we see how well things go. I also believe this means no chance of an announcement for the next couple of weeks while they get settled in and start initial maneuvering. And with August 11 Iowa looming, they are probably going to have to wait. Still, there is always the possibility of a surprise - and that would bring Fred's announcement in on July 28 (by the 31st), for tax/funding reasons. So I'll go back and stand by my July 28 prediction.
Tom Collamore, the former Altria exec who had been running Fred Thompson's campaign, has resigned and will be replaced by Randy Enwright. Enwright is a Florida political hand with ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush. Also coming on board in a leadership capacity is Spencer Abraham, the former Michigan senator and Energy secretary.
"We’re making a number of planned changes as we move to the next phase," said Thompson communications director Linda Rozett. "We’re adding political muscle to the organization."
A Thompson aide said that Enwright would serve as the day-to-day manager while Abraham would take more of a campaign chairman capacity.
In a new sign that Fred Thompson is readying a full-on campaign launch, he's chosen a direct mail fundraising firm, HSP Direct, which is well wired into conservative circuits. HSP Direct -- Hogan, Schenk and Paul, Inc -- is based in Virginia.
We were pleased, but not surprised, to read this morning that Sen. Fred Thompson has secured the services of Joseph Cella of Fidelis, a conservative Catholic advocacy group.
Cella began reading the old Dayton v. Kennedy blog from its inception and was kind to offer us long-distance advice — advice we often took.
This is a major catch for the prenatal Thompson candidacy as it continues to man up. It signals that Senator Thompson’s brain trust sees the GOP nomination contest emerging as a battle between Thompson and Mayor Giuliani — the candidate of whom Fidelis has been most critical.
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