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A report from Fox News dated July 25th is one of four linked from this post that point to something of a shake up in the Fred Thompson pre-campaign and other challenges confronting the unannounced Presidential candidate. The reports also point to wife Jeri Kehn and her political background, a website contract offer early in the couple’s history and her influence in Fred Thompson running for President as well as causing friction among staff. The reports suggest her role in the campaign aspirations of the possible candidate may be the driving force.

The Fox News report indicates Tom Collomore’s ‘reduced role’ was the result of troubles with Kehn while the campaign denies that and says Randy Enright as campaign manager was always part of the plan as well as Collomore’s reduced role. The obligatory unnamed sources close to the campaign contradict those statements asserting friction as at least partially responsible for the moves.

A wire report from the Houston Chronicle quotes Linda Rozett, ‘ We are strengthening the organization as we enter the next phase,’ as an explanation for replacing a top aide. Details from mensnewsdaily.com with source credited to wikinews indicate J.T. Mastranadi, campaign research director of two weeks has resigned as well as Tom Collomore, citing friction with Kehn. The report further indicates Thompson’s fund raising is way down.

The Politico report on this story seems to shy away from the other reports on resignations and quotes leave it vague by suggesting new requirements when moving from exploratory to a full campaign. It appears anyone in or close or favoring the Thompson campaign is spinning the moves as positive with explanations on why former staffers were not up to the task of the anticipated next phase. The opposite spin points to the influence of Thompson’s wife, Jeri.

This may be another indication that the wide-eyed anticipation of Fred Thompson’s campaign announcement may not provide the stellar positioning in the polls supporters may expect. Similarly, the 2nd quarter spin from the media indicating the Dems fund raising and suggesting strength of the Democratic party versus weakness of the GOP may also be overstated. Another characteristic of an exceptionally long campaign season might be unrealistic optimism in measuring candidate performance and chances for ultimate victory in 2008. It’s early folks.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Trouble in Fred Thompson’s ‘Non-Campaign’

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
By Carl Cameron
Growing pains within Fred Thompson’s “non-campaign” for president in 2008 revealed themselves in a big way Tuesday.

Changes in Fred Thompson US Presidential campaign

July 25, 2007
On Tuesday and Wednesday, two of Fred Thompson pre-campaign staffers resigned. J.T. Mastranadi, who was hired less than two weeks ago as the campaign’s director of research, resigned this morning. Whereas, yesterday Thompson’s top adviser, Tom Collamore, resigned “because of differences with Thompson’s wife, Jeri Kehn, a Naperville native.”

Thompson replaces his top assistant

WASHINGTON - GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson is shaking up his still-unofficial campaign, replacing his top aide with a former Michigan senator and a veteran Florida strategist.

“We are strengthening the organization as we enter the next phase,” said Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett.

From wire reports

F. Thompson shakes up pre-launch campaign

By: Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen
Jul 24, 2007 08:56 PM EST
Though he has not yet even declared he is running for president, Fred Thompson shook up his team Tuesday amid fears he was losing momentum and needed an injection of talent.

Top advisers to the “Law & Order” actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee had soured on Tom Collamore, the operations chief for the Republican presidential campaign in waiting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, Money Matters, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, McCain, thompson, romney, giuliani. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.