Posted on 12/04/2008 9:51:34 AM PST by NormsRevenge
It isn't really clear if a candidate for Governor can suffer a "significant campaign setback" if they aren't even a candidate yet, but that is what has happened to ersatz Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who, relatively new to the GOP, has had high profile roles with the Presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney (with whom she was once a co-worker) and Senator John McCain - with the confirmation that her top two most prominent advisors are no longer engaged professionally on Whitman's behalf.
--snip--
For most of this year, Whitman has been rumored to be looking at a run for Governor, and she moved quite a bit past the rumor stage with a series of meetings around the state with GOP stakeholders, where she made it clear that she was, indeed, contemplating a run. In fact, she reached out to bring on some pretty highly respected political operatives - perhaps some of the best - in Steve Schmidt and Adam Mendelsohn of Mercury Public Affairs to give her strategic counsel as she weighed her options.
That said, going back to last summer's Republican National Convention, I had heard rumors that Schmidt/Mendelsohn and Whitman had parted ways. When I checked into it though last month, I determined that at the time, it was just the political rumor-mill.
After hearing it come up again in the last day or so, I spoke last night with both Schmidt and Mendelsohn who both confirmed that they are no longer engaged professionally in assisting Whitman in her assessing and/or gearing up for a run for Governor.
In a lengthy chat, Schmidt (pictured right), who has just finished running the McCain for President campaign, and before that, the 2006 re-election campaign of Governor Schwarzenegger, was candid in sharing that his decision to not engage in yet another major campaign was a personal one. Schmidt is ready to try a normal life for a while having been in "permanent campaign mode" now for over five years, when you add in his key role in President Bush's re-election and his work in the administration which included jockeying for the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito, and a month-long trip to Iraq.
fyi
Isn’t it the consensus that the McCain campaign was run horribly? So why is it a BAD thing that Steve Schmidt is not participating in Meg Whitman’s campaign?
She has to be better than Ah-nald.
I wonder if Schmidt’s attempt at a “normal life” have anything to do with this: http://wordpress.redstate.com/blog/2008/11/13/on-steve-schmidt/
Meg could always get Nicolle Wallace. Nicolle is free now that she has finished backstabbing Palin.
If only we could limit these threads to conservatives. I'am tired of cliched Republicans who are willing to run Hugo Chavez for governor as long as Hugo wins.
I wonder how Schmidt feels about hiring Fabian — the father of the murderer Esteban Nuñez.
Did ya see the coverage on the ganster-punk’s statement that AP pulled off the arrest warrant?
Steve Schmidt is living up to the “Frank Nitti-like” character comparison.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCMGJnSMFCGL4-Thf6fDcl6t3TFwD94RKD4O1
Nunez told his friends not to worry, according to the arrest warrant:
“Nunez said whatever happens, he would take the rap for it” and that
“hopefully his dad would take care of it and could get them off on self defense.”
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