According to my sources, the Allen campaign is in disarray, with a major personnel change having taken place on Wednesday afternoon (5 PM) in Richmond. The deal is that Allen's big donors/heavy hitters were demanding that Allen shake up his faltering, floundering campaign. Specifically, they wanted Dick Wadhams out of there, because he was too "strident," "negative," "shrill," "defensive," and "killing the campaign." Not that this is a big surprise to most of us, but apparently it's rocket science to the Allen campaign and its lackeys in the blogosphere.So, why hasn't this been reported in the mainstream media? According to my sources, reporters asked Allen senior strategist Chris "Swiftboat" LaCivita what the Allen campaign was going to do about Wadhams, and that their sources were telling them that Wadhams was going to cause Allen to lose. LaCivita told them, OFF THE RECORD, that as of Wednesday he, LaCivita, would be in charge, and that Wadhams would be demoted to unspecified duties. In other words, LaCivita wants to have it both ways, letting the reporters know just to get them off his back, but keeping it off the record so there won't be a huge "Allen Campaign in Disarray" story on the front page of the Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, etc.
So, there you have it: Wadhams demoted, Swiftboat LaCivita in charge. And the Allen campaign in a downward spiral. Sad, huh?
P.S. It's kind of hilarious to blame Dick Wadhams for George Allen's string of stupid comments - I mean, it's not like Wadhams told Allen to call someone a racial slur - but I guess you've got to have a scapegoat when your candidate screws up.
[UPDATE: I'm hearing from other sources that they're not sure Wadhams has actually been demoted, although there's a lot of confusion as to what's really happening in the Allen campaign. The initial sources were certain of Wadhams being demoted. Personally, I hope Wadhams stays right where he is, given what a great job he's been doing. Ha. Anyway, since Wadhams still works for Allen, we may not get the whole story on this until after the election. Stay tuned...]
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
If there were any decency at the Allen campaign, Dick Wadhams would be fired. If Allen put any value on competence, the same would have happened long ago.
Maybe George Allen took my advice. That's service!
The double standards is telling.
Sorry, my heart just isn't up to embedded links etc.
And how exactly is that change supposed to make the Allen campaign operation less "strident," "negative," "shrill," and "defensive"?
Maybe the newspaper reporters can explain that, once they get around to doing some stories on this.
Can anybody remember an article like that? If we can find it, it would be good to send to reporters and editors--to help them in their soon-to-be-published articles on disarray in the Allen campaign, right?
This could get interesting...
How can he explain to clients this?
What took ALlen so long?
Has he seen new poll numbers that he doesn't like? If so, can't wait until they're made public.
And, with a drum roll, here they are:
The new September 22, 2006 print edition of the Rothenberg Political Report is on its way to subscribers. For subscription information- click here. This issues contains updated news and ratings on the Senate, the House, and races for Governor.
In the Senate, we moved three races (click here for our ratings):
-Virginia from Clear Advantage to Narrow Advantage for George Allen (R)
-Washington from Narrow Advantage to Clear Advantage for Maria Cantwell (D)
-Minnesota from Narrow Advantage to Clear Advantage for the Democrats
Tough break for Wadhams. It's true that he compounded Allen's problems with misguided attempts at spin, but the ultimate blame rests on Allen's mouth.
I completely agree with the other posts above regarding the replacment of one scumbag with another. I'm sure it's about finding a negative message that works - as opposed to Wadhams' negative message that didn't work.
I hope no one is holding their breath for a positive campaign. Hell, they already tried that and Virginia didn't buy it.
Overall, I consider this a loss for our side. If the election was won or lost based on how many staffers get fired we'd be in great shape. But it doesn't and I'd rather have Wadhams f'ckn things up than to give a new guy a chance at getting them right.
Sad? No, happy :-)
He's Rove with all of the flaws and none of the fixes. Rove may be amoral in his dealings, but he's got a sense of humor when it comes to dealing with the press--that's a significant difference.
My sense is that Wadhams was brought on to run a national campaign and that he never really had much of a handle on Virginia's demographic complexities. Bob Gibson has a good story about this in the Daily Progress . . .
http://www.dailyprog...
A change like this 45 days before the election indicates just how bad thing must be. However, LaCivita is clearly the much more natural choice as far as the state race goes.
As a side note, I'm pretty certain that LaCivita has had an office here in Arlington since at least 2004. That doesn't mean that he knows Virginia, but that's still an improvement over Wadhams 6 to 8 months.
Webb is just being exactly what he is, and that is starting to pay off.
Oh, I guess Allen is partying with Ann Coulter and that crowd today. Maybe he'll preach tolerance to them.
Wonkette must be reading this blog now.
http://www.wonkette....
Yeah, before Allen came up with his newest bit of damage control, he should’ve cleared the story with George Allen. The newest iteration of the sordid tale is after the jump.
Quoting the magazine story:
Allen actually had a pretty credible defense for what he said. No one — including The Washington Post, which featured the story repeatedly for several weeks — ever demonstrated that “macaca” really has such murky racial connotations in any language. But in northern Italy, where Allen’s mother had close family connections, “macaca” does seem to mean “clown” or “buffoon.” Allen says now that’s what he was trying to communicate.
I never thought I'd have to counsel a native speaker on the mtter of language (shaking her head, sadly)...
Furthermore, I will still be able to make my wife laugh when I mention Dick Wadhams' name when I read her news about the campaign. :P
The guy (La Civita) is a former enlisted Marine who is going after a Marine's Marine in Jim Webb. This is not done!!
Any self respecting Marine would just walk away. To take over the campaign of an imposter like Allen requires a special amount of self serving sickeness of which there is no cure.
I'll only be happy when George Allen is demoted to the bad actor status he currently holds (except he's getting paid via tax payers money).
I think at this point we should do our best to focus on Jim. There continue to be plenty of reasons for attacking Allen, but I look at what Todd Smyth is putting out for example. We need to tell Jim Webb's story. It is compelling.
I do have to make an observation about Macaca. Throughout this controversy, my attention has been drawn to the bullying aspect because that cannot really be challenged. Now, am I to understand that we are hearing an explanation from the Allen campaign that supports that view? What did S.R. Siddarth do to justify a US Senator referring to him as a "clown" or a "buffoon?" Just asking because this is truly disgraceful behavior for anyone. We are talking about how our Senator, who's salary we pay, treats people. George Allen is a bully. We do not want him exercising power.