Alex Isenstadt writes at Politco:
Rand Paul, once seen as a top-tier contender, finds his presidential hopes fading fast as he grapples with deep fundraising and organizational problems that have left his campaign badly hobbled.
Interviews with more than a dozen sources close to the Kentucky senator, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an underfunded and understaffed campaign beaten down by low morale.
They described an operation that pitted a cerebral chief strategist against an intense campaign manager who once got into a physical altercation with the candidate’s bodyguard. And they portrayed an undisciplined politician who wasn’t willing to do what it took to win — a man who obsessed over trivial matters like flight times, peppered aides with demands for more time off from campaigning, and once chose to go on a spring-break jaunt rather than woo a powerful donor...
At Paul’s campaign headquarters on Capitol Hill, morale has begun to sink. At least one key aide recently departed, and others have had conversations with rival campaigns.
“It’s such a negative environment,” said one Paul aide. “Everyone is on edge, and no one is having any fun. They need to recapture some of their positive mojo, and fast.”...
Easily the biggest problem confronting Paul is his fundraising – or lack thereof. Paul has taken in just $13 million, a fraction of what all his major rivals for the Republican nomination have raised and far less than Paul hoped.
Those close to Paul say there’s a simple reason for his lack of success: He’s simply not willing to do the stroking and courting that powerful donors expect. He’s downright allergic, they say, to the idea of forging relationships with people with the end goal of pumping them for dough. And while he’s had no shortage of opportunities to mix and mingle with some of the Republican Party’s wealthiest figures, Paul has expressed a frustration that donors want so much face time.
He’s even turned away the Koch brothers. When the billionaire industrialists convene their network of conservative benefactors in southern California this week, Republican candidates like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker will be in attendance. But Paul won’t be. The senator, the Koch summit’s baffled organizers said, turned down an invitation. Paul has said he will instead be campaigning in Iowa...
At times, Paul has simply seemed uninterested in playing the donor game. Earlier this year, the senator had agreed to speak at the Dialog Retreat, a gathering hosted by Auren Hoffman, a prominent investor with deep ties in the well-heeled Silicon Valley world. But just before he was to appear at Hoffman’s, Paul pulled out so that he could take his family on a spring-break excursion to Florida. Paul’s aides were aghast, realizing they’d missed an opportunity to cultivate the very type of donors likely to be receptive to his small-government philosophy.
A Paul spokesman, Sergio Gor, declined to comment other than to say that “scheduling conflicts come up all the time.” ..
The staff serving beneath [ chief strategist, Doug]Stafford and [campaign manager] Englander, meanwhile, is undermanned and overworked. While other presidential candidates have hired multiple aides to oversee their day-to-day scheduling, for example, Paul has only a few. The job is not for the faint of heart: In recent weeks, two overwhelmed schedulers, Cheyenne Foster, who worked on the presidential campaign, and Jessica Newman, who worked in the Senate office, have departed...
Those tasked with crafting Paul’s schedule say the process is like playing a game of three-dimensional chess. Rather than letting his campaign team determine his travel schedule, as is customary for busy presidential candidates, Paul often demands sign-off on minute details, going so far as to request detailed lists of possible flight schedules and routes. Paul — who has complained that running for president is “not really a lot of fun” — can be prone to asking for time off the campaign trail, and can be prickly about the most mundane of commitments. Shortly before attending an event in Monterey, California, last month, he griped about having to do a photo-line with supporters even though it had been on his schedule for weeks...
“Rand has a strong team and his support has deep, deep roots,” said Jesse Benton, who managed Paul’s 2010 Senate bid and is now overseeing one of his super PACs. “He’ll be just fine.”
But with little cash, and with other candidates like Trump sucking oxygen out of the race, Paul may be running short on time.
“He hasn’t had a great start, and I don’t know whether it’s too late,” said Ed Rollins, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns. “Others have stepped into that void, and I don’t see him in the top three or four anymore.”
Read the full article here.
This is extremely serious stuff. It appears the campaign is dysfunctional and apparently it is difficult to work for Rand. There is no chance that he will be able to bring into his campaign any major league talent, from here on out. And the tone of this article suggests that others in the campaign are unhappy and will jump ship at the first opportunity.
This article will also do a lot to close the door on any major league donors stepping up, given that they already have failed to do so for the most part.
-RW
(ht Nick Badalamenti)
No comments:
Post a Comment