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Nancy Smith

Free-Falling Annette Taddeo Gets a DCCC-Engineered Staff Shakeup

June 1, 2016 - 6:00am
Annette Taddeo
Annette Taddeo

Annette Taddeo's congressional campaign looks like somebody stirred it with a spoon. Seems the darling of the national Dems, the Democratic Congressional Committee's favored CD 26 candidate, just withstood one heck of an intervention.

Beats me how she survived it. 

Some key people were shown the door. Apparently the gloom and disarray in Taddeo World is all their fault.

When you're burning through money and losing your primary by double figures, somebody's head has to roll.

I Beg to DifferMarc Caputo at POLITICO Florida was first to report the unceremonious exit of Campaign Manager Shaun Daniels, Finance Director Foxhall Parker and Communications Director Francisco Bravo.

But there are actually two more who were on the Taddeo Team and now aren't. Political Director Josh Romero and the candidate's first finance director, Lindsay Pollard didn't get the ax, they just ran for dear life.

Caputo wrote Tuesday that to replace Daniels, the national Dems hooked Taddeo up with Melissa Gilbert's former campaign manager, James Stretch. "Little House on the Prairie actress Gilbert dropped out of her Michigan race last week.

What's more interesting to me is the open finance director job. Who would want it?

Working for Annette Taddeo is lousy job security. This is a candidate who may do no wrong in the minds of the nationals, but whose own poll shows she's down 21 points to primary challenger Joe Garcia in a district that covers portions of Miami-Dade and all of Monroe County.

How many donors are going to give to a candidate that far behind? Seems like a bad investment to me.

I've written before about Taddeo's woefully anemic quarterly fundraising report, filed in two batches, April 14 and April 15. In all, she raised $219,682 for the entire first quarter of 2016. That's $113,609 less than primary opponent Garcia had raised in the six or so weeks he had been in the race. Her daily begging emails obviously made no difference: Garcia raised 50 percent more than she did, and in less than half the time.

Garcia, who held the seat before Republican incumbent Carlos Curbelo, may be the only candidate of either party in the race who is making hay, not news. The Garcia campaign polling shows he's beating Taddeo by 24 points.

Curbelo, meanwhile, is running around offending a lot of people in the district. Miami-Dade for Trump Chairman Ed MacDougall, former mayor of Cutler Bay and former Curbelo opponent is one of them. MacDougall told me Tuesday, "I'm for any Republican who is going to run against Carlos. Not only has he announced he's voting for Hillary rather than Trump, which makes him a bad Republican in my book, the man is dishonest. ... He put his lobbying firm in his wife's name while he worked for the School Board" and he "made millions" from his conflicts of interest.

MacDougall, who took to the Miami airwaves (610 WIOD) to express his dissatisfaction with the incumbent, said he personally won't challenge Curbelo, "but someone should give him a real primary."

But I digress. Back to Taddeo, train wreck du jour.

I'm sure it was necessary to fire or drive off senior staff. Of course her poor performance is all their fault. Come to think of it, Taddeo’s staff was probably also to blame for her losing campaigns in 2008, 2010 and 2014.
 
In all seriousness, shouldn't someone sit Annette down and gently explain to her that it’s not her staff that voters don’t like ... it’s Annette Taddeo they don’t like, again (x4).

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Chris Pack had this to say: “We congratulate Annette Taddeo’s campaign manager and communications director on recently being freed from Annette Taddeo’s political incompetence. But if Annette Taddeo really wants to make a difference for her campaign, she should stand in front of a mirror and fire the person looking back at her.”

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith

Comments

Nothing against Annette but Mr Curbelo seems to be smart, pragmatic, effective and likable. I'm a progressive, anti-shenanigan, fiscal conservative, independent (registered Democrat/former Republican) and think he serves his district well and the great state of FL. I'm just sorry he's in the party of NO. NO. NO who'd rather prove the Gipper's theory that "Government is the problem" by breaking government. Annette can't win campaigning as the not-Curbelo. She has not added anything to the conversation that inspires me to contribute to her campaign. Nothing surprising here. But Tim Canova to replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz - now THERE'S a campaign worth supporting.

Curbelo is a moron who voted to fund Obama's "Illegal Amnesty"... and if that wasn't bad enough, he voted against cutting funds (vis the Justice Dept) to "Sanctuary Cities". His less than one term in the "House" is "Unremarkable" to say the least...

Is anyone "remarkable" any more in a stalled House? Seriously - there are important things that a thriving nation needs to get done - basic stuff - and if you simply take your ball and go home, and don't play the game with the rules you have .... then neither side puts points on their scoreboard. Ergo - the new House under Speaker Ryan where nothing has been passed. Curbelo is still a good egg, and won't lose his seat to Taddeo. Another nail in the coffin of DWS and her failed leadership of the DNC.

If your campaign is in free fall, it's most likely not the staff's fault. Annette Taddeo might want to put the blame on the person she looks at in the mirror. Typical Democrat answer, it is someone else's fault. They want to make the decisions but never accept the consequences of those decisions.

Comments are now closed.

nancy smith
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