Clinton camp overhaul
Posted: Monday, February 11, 2008 9:20 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Yesterday afternoon, the Clinton campaign announced that manager Patti Solis Doyle is stepping down and former Hillary Clinton chief of staff Maggie Williams has taken over the reins.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that, per the Clinton campaign, there was no good time to do this shakeup. But you can’t have two people trying to make the big decisions about advertising and budgeting for Texas and Ohio now "there is no margin of error.” According to the campaign, they have to win those states and Pennsylvania to keep their hopes alive.
The Washington Post: "The change at the top of the Clinton campaign has been talked about since last month's Iowa caucuses, in which the senator from New York placed third and immediately lost her front-runner status. Still, it came as a surprise to even some senior advisers." Why the change? It appears that this long campaign is getting to the campaign that's slowly falling behind. "One senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the campaign's inner workings, said, ‘The dissatisfaction -- to the extent there has been -- has not been about money.’ Asked what the source of dissatisfaction was, this adviser replied, ‘There is a sense that this is a fatiguing campaign and some new energy primarily was useful.’”
The paper also hints at tension between Williams and Solis Doyle. Williams had come in temporarily after New Hampshire to help out. “By one account, Williams decided early last week to return to her consulting firm, her temporary assignment over. By another, she announced that she was leaving to send a signal to Clinton that the dual management structure was untenable."
The New York Times: "The replacement of Ms. Doyle was in part a signal to donors and other supporters that the campaign was regrouping and was poised to right itself, even as Mrs. Clinton faces uncertain prospects Tuesday in contests in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia."
More: "The campaign had braced for a shake-up ever since Mrs. Clinton lost Iowa, but it was delayed because she unexpectedly won New Hampshire. At that point, Ms. Williams, a longtime friend of Mrs. Clinton’s, had been worked into the organization along with Ms. Doyle, and over time ‘it just became untenable for both of them to be essentially sharing the same job,’ as one campaign ally put it.”
The Los Angeles Times: "An overhaul of Clinton's senior staff had been rumored for months as her national lead shrank and she struggled to keep pace with Obama's prodigious fundraising." More: "Power in the Clinton camp is divided among a handful of top aides: Terry McAuliffe and Jonathan Mantz head fundraising; Mandy Grunwald handles campaign advertising; Howard Wolfson runs communications; Mark Penn is responsible for polling and strategy; and Harold Ickes oversees political matters. Bill Clinton acts as chief surrogate with the standing to weigh in whenever he chooses. As campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle was atop the pyramid, responsible for directing the staff, making final decisions on budgets and hiring, and consulting with the candidate. In ‘Hillaryland’ -- the nickname for Clinton's staff that dates to her White House years -- Solis Doyle, 42, could boast of a rapport with the candidate that few matched. The two teamed up in 1991 when Bill Clinton first ran for president. She later became Hillary Clinton's scheduler in the White House."
The New York Daily News: “The overhaul signaled growing anxiety inside Camp Clinton. … Clinton's campaign has sunk into a post-Super Tuesday funk, with little to crow about except a spike in fund-raising.” More: A “source and others have complained for weeks that Solis Doyle hasn't been able to corral the towering egos of Hillary's chief consultants, notably pollster Mark Penn and consultant Howard Wolfson. On the staff level, the knives have been out for Solis Doyle since Obama won Iowa Jan. 3 and shattered the campaign's sense of inevitability, the source added.”
Get to know Maggie Williams. "Among Billaryland's inner circle, Maggie Williams is renowned as the ultimate Hillary loyalist, fierce and unwavering in her devotion for nearly 25 years."
