In Shake-Up, Dean Names Gore Ally to Run Campaign

After spending nearly $40 million only to face devastating defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean named a longtime friend of former Vice President Al Gore as his campaign chief on Wednesday, prompting the abrupt resignation of his campaign manager, Joe Trippi.

Dr. Dean said he had tapped Roy Neel, who was given the title of chief executive officer, to streamline day-to-day decision making as the Democratic presidential contest enters a lightning round of multistate contests. He said he had hoped to keep Mr. Trippi on as senior strategist.

But after a year of building the Dean juggernaut, from a staff of seven to what he has often called "the greatest grass-roots movement in the history of American politics," Mr. Trippi refused to be sidelined, and walked out after what aides described as an emotional staff meeting here.

This is really too bad, I'm a big fan of Joe Trippi. You may remember that Melissa and I went to see him speak right here in Waterbury. The NYT article linked above has some interesting insight on the story.

The shake-up comes at a perilous time for the Dean campaign. Only weeks ago, he was riding high in the polls and had amassed far more money than any other campaign. But this week, campaign fund-raisers said, the operation had only $4.5 million to $5 million on hand, about the amount it raised over the Internet since Jan. 1, and was scrambling to collect more money.

After raising $41 million in 2003, far more than any of his Democratic rivals, Dr. Dean spent so much on television and on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire that campaign officials said they were only confident of having enough money to compete through next week.

This blows my mind that they didn't save any of that money. I guess with the way things were going it made sense to try and wrap it up early, but it's still amazing, Dean is in a big hole.

Obviously I didn't get either of my wishes from the NH primary, Dean wasn't close, and Edwards finished fourth.

I still think Kerry is vulnerable, especially if Dean, Clark, and Edwards can each win a state on the 3rd. I'd like to see results from past Dem primaries to see how these things play out.

At least Sullivan hasn't given up on Dean.