While the Republican side has been quick to hire quality talent in the state, it seems like the Democrats, at least relatively, have been slower to the punch.
There’s a lot to fill: field, political, advance, press, scheduling and finance to name a few. In your mind, thinking about the talent remaining in Iowa, who are the Top 5 staffers Dem presidentials should be thinking about?
Also, who were the best pickups for staff so far?
3 Comments
Vilsack's advantage
In my opinion, Vilsack’s pick-ups of Dusky Terry, Jesse Harris, and Travis Brock were pretty great. It is worth pointing out that he did have the leg up meeting all of these early on, before he even launched his campaign, by being governor. I’ll add some of my other thoughts later.
chris-woods Fri 26 Jan 2:59 PM
Hype
I think Republicans just hype every hire as if they just secured the state. That and Democrats actually care about who would be the best President, and tend to hold off longer on picking a candidate until they actually know who they want to win. 🙂
drew-miller Sat 27 Jan 6:06 PM
don't make too much of this
Early on in 2003, I was leaning toward Bob Graham. Former governor, current senator, voted against the Iraq War Resolution, won five statewide elections in Florida by huge margins.
He had a great staff, especially Julie Stauch as political coordinator. He also had the early backing of Sheila McGuire Riggs. I thought the guy was smart and would have been a great candidate–certainly much more “electable” than Kerry.
Apparently only about 1 percent of people agreed with me. I don’t think the staff did anything wrong, but for some reason Dean caught fire and Graham didn’t. Riggs ended up going with Dean. I can’t remember who Julie Stauch ended up with. I chose Kerry.
Anyway, poor staffers can screw up a campaign, but I don’t know how much great staffers can do if the candidate doesn’t strike a chord with people.
desmoinesdem Sun 28 Jan 9:40 AM