December 18, 2006
Bayh's Free Agents
Before he dropped out, Sen. Evan Bayh put together an impressive political team to help run a presidential race. They're now free agents.
- Anita Dunn -- served as Bayh's chief consultant. Before the election, she signed on to Sen. Barack Obama's HopeFund PAC but is no longer affiliated. It's not clear whether Dunn will do a different campaign.
- Marc Farinella -- was exec. dir of Bayh's PAC.
- Paul Maslin -- no major Dem campaign needs a pollster right now, but Maslin has the nat'l and pres. experience.
- Dan Pfeiffer -- affable comm. dir for Bayh. Given that he's a veteran of Tom Daschle's campaign universe, it would not be a surprise if he joins the Obama camp in some capacity. That said, Pfeiffer hasn't made a decision yet/
- Nancy Jacobson -- the architect of Bayh's finances, she'll end up either with Sen. Hillary Clinton (her husband is Mark Penn), Barack Obama (many Bayh donors like Obama) or remain unaffiliated.
- Kory Mitchell -- the man in charge of putting together Bayh's plan to raise the tens of millions needed for a campaign. He managed Sen. John Kerry's relationships with FL donors in '04 and was key point of contact for Western donors at the DNC. We're told that four campaigns and two candidates called Mitchell directly.
- Other fundraisers: key bundlers signed up by Bayh include Greg Wendt, Mark Chandler, Eric Mindich, Jeff Smulyan, Mark Gilbert, Adam Aron, Danny Holtz and Danny Ponce. All are big fish, capable of bringing in six figure sums through their rolodexes.
- Chris Hayler and Sean Downey -- seved as Bayh's political directors for the pre-presidential months. Hayler is a former IA Dem staffer; Downey was Sen. Joe Leberman's dep. pol. dir in '04.
- Camp Bayh staff -- the 25 in IA, 15 in NH, 2 in NV and 1 in SC. Well trained and many have deep relationships with local elected officials. In IA, the Camp Bayh-trained political team helped secure the state leg. for Dems, according to Republicans.
Posted at 03:20 PM
Comments
The Bayh staffers did not give Iowa the majorities in both the state House and Senate. The IDP did by recruiting good candidates and executing a superior field operation. The Republicans, running with their tails between their legs, are pointing to outside x factors as they continue to be in a state of denial as to why they are now the minority party in the Hawkeye State.
JRH | 12.18.06 11:58 PM
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