So Bernie Sanders Does Have A Campaign Manager.

[KittyWampus]

I have no idea how up to the job Jeff Weaver is. Sounds like he's mostly just worked in Vermont for Sanders. So good luck with that Jeff.

It's kind of odd that Hillary's campaign manager/staff gets talked about and dissected. Sanders' doesn't.

From the outset, I'd say Sanders and his campaign are rather insular.


MONTPELIER – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has named two long-time Vermont political aides to key positions in his presidential campaign.

Sanders says Jeff Weaver will be his campaign manager and Phil Fiermonte will be the campaign field director as part of his effort to win the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Weaver is from Franklin County. He first began working for Sanders in 1986. He went on to become chief of staff in his Senate office.

Fiermonte, a Derby native, has worked on a number of Sanders' campaigns over the years. Until recently he was the state director of Sanders' Vermont Senate office.

Sanders says Weaver and Fiermonte's "knowledge of grassroots politics and commitment to progressive policies will play a critical role in our campaign."


………………………………………………………………….



Campaign Manager Jeff Weaver
(announced May 15, 2015) Started as a legislative assistant to Sanders in his House office while attending law school, served as Sanders' House chief of staff in the early 2000s, as his 2006 campaign manager, and as his Senate chief of staff from Jan. 2007-July 2009. J.D. from Georgetown University School of Law, 1996; undergraduate degree from University of Vermont, 1990. Originally from Frankllin County.

[djean111]

1. So what?

And HRC's staff does not get talked about because they are universally admired.

[KittyWampus]

2. So what? DU'ers regularly have opinions on campaign staff. You think Sanders staff

doesn't deserve at least a MENTION?

[djean111]

4. I am saying that it seems to me that Hillary's campaign staff is mentioned because of

political and corporate associations. And some hires are touted as possibly being part of her staff if she becomes president.
Kind of different than just not having as much experience. At least Bernie's choices have not lost a primary campaign, so there is that.

[KittyWampus]

15. No, I've been on DU since the beginning. Campaign staff gets talked about. Except Sanders

apparently.

[cali]

3. Insular? What do you even mean when you claim that Sanders and his campaign

are rather insular?

Please explain why you think Sanders fits this description:

ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one's own experience.
synonyms: narrow-minded, small-minded, inward-looking, parochial, provincial, small-town, shortsighted, hidebound, blinkered;

There's a rich irony here: Hillary exists in a bubble; meeting only with tiny groups of screened supporters (and to date, not frequently). She's spent far more time s announcing with fellow 1%ers than with voters. She's avoided the media. Sanders has continued his long practice of engaging with prospective voters through his weekly "Brunch with Bernie" on the radio. He's held a town hall style meeting in NH, and open and long Q&A on Reddit where no question was off limits, and met with the public on other occasions. And he's been in it for less than a month.

Gee, sounds like HRC is the more insular of the two. By far.

[procon]

6. Insular in that he's chosen staffers from within his own office rather

than hiring an experienced manager that has a record of successfully running winning national campaigns. While I don't grasp the logic that led Sanders to make this decision, it opens a valid concern that brings into question his agenda. What is his strategy to reach the primary, let alone the nomination, by putting a lightweight team like this up against the behemoth that is the Clinton campaign?

[cali]

8. His senior adviser is Tad Devine

You realize Robby Mook has never run a national campaign before either, right?


Senior Adviser Tad Devine

President at Devine, Mulvey, Longabaugh since 2007. With Mike Donilon formed D&D Media in 2005. President of Shrum, Devine & Donilon, Inc. At the media consulting firm Doak Shrum and Associates, Inc. from 1993 until it split in early 1995. Extensive experience on presidential campaigns: Senior advisor and strategist on Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003-04. Senior strategist on the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. Campaign manager on Sen. Bob Kerrey's 1992 presidential campaign. Director of delegate selection and field operations for Mike Dukakis' campaign in 1987-88, and in the Fall, campaign manager for VP nominee Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. Worked on Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign in the Florida primary, as deputy delegate director, and in the Fall as executive assistant to the campaign manager. Started in politics in 1980 helping track delegates for Jimmy Carter. Devine has also worked as a strategist and consultant on campaigns overseas. Other experience includes: Assistant to the president of Boston University, 1991-93. Chief of staff to the Mayor of Providence, RI, 1989-90. Associate attorney at the law firm of Winston & Strawn, 1985-87. J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, 1982; B.A. in American history from Boston University, 1978. Born in Providence, RI.



Communications Director Michael Briggs

Also serving as communications director in Sanders' Senate office (with Sen. Sanders since 2007) Press secretary to Sen. John Edwards (NC), 1999-2005. Spokesman for U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (IL), 1997-98. Press secretary to U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (IL). Reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Coordinator Pete D'Alessandro

(reported May 14, 2015 by the Quad-City Times' Ed Tibbetts..."to put a team together in Iowa&quot Founder (2001) and CEO of PAD Consulting in Des Moines. Political director for Gov. Chet Culver. Political director of Bill Bradley's 1999-2000 Iowa caucus campaign. Field director on Tom Vilsack's 1998 campaign for governor. Worked on Leonard Boswell's campaign. Graduate of Illinois State University, 1986. Berwyn native.

[procon]

13. I've already read Devine's uninspiring C.V.

but his role as an advisor is not comparable to that of the campaign manager. For whatever reason, Sanders opted to put his political aides from his Senate office in charge of a national presidential campaign, not Devine, who could at least claim experience at the national level. I don't pretend to understand how that rationale equates to a winning scheme.

[cali]

17. again, Mook has never run a national presidential campaign either

And I don't know- and neither do you- how the hierarchy of staff works in Sanders' campaign. It varies from campaign to campaign, how much influence one person has v. another. On Sanders page about staff, Devine is listed first. So saying his role isn't comparable to that of campaign manager may not be true. His campaign manager may be handling the nuts and bolts of the operation and Devine may be handling strategy. Hard to know.

In any case, whether you find Devine uninspiring is irrelevant, right?

I would assume Sanders has faith in people he knows and has a history of working with. And he seems to have gotten off to a respectable start. He's raising money, recruiting volunteers and he's going up in the polls in NH and Iowa.

As Sanders says, it's a mistake to underestimate him.

[jwirr]

21. Thank you for the info. They sound good.

[KittyWampus]

16. You don't think provincial and small town apply to Sanders? Senator from Vermont?

Vermont- population 626,000 and 95% white?

[cali]

18. No. I don't. Incredibly there are all kinds of people from Vermont

who aren't provincial. Heard of Bill McKibben? Do you actually think Pat Leahy is provincial? News Flash: We don't live in the 19th century anymore. And thankfully, diversity is increasing in Vermont, due, in part, to the state putting out the welcome mat to immigrants of color. Yes, we have a way to go, but that doesn't mean that Vermonters don't have a sophisticated perspective. It has an engaged, educated citizenry.

I think it's bizarre to call a man who grew up in NY, went to college in Chicago, was actively involved in the civil rights movement as an organizer for SNCC, organized the first sit in against segregated dorms at the U. of C, was a Mayor, an 8 term U.S. Rep and has served almost 2 terms as U.S. Senator, "provincial".

Provincial:

an inhabitant of the regions outside the capital city of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded.
synonyms: hillbilly, (country) bumpkin, country cousin, rustic, yokel, village idiot, peasant, hayseed, hick, rube, redneck
"they were dismissed as provincials"


http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-02-10-vermont-census_N.htm

[procon]

5. How can this help him be successful at the national level?

If these two only have experience working within his own existing team on a (small) state campaign, how do they morph their limited skills and experience into managing the demands of a huge -- and victorious -- national effort?

I want to see Sanders run a good race and go head to head with the front runner. If he's decided not to contract with a top tier, winning campaign manager and just go with his long time friends and staffers he's comfortable with, that raises a bunch of red flags for me about his long term goals. Is he really in it to win it, or is he just basking in the spotlight and fundraising off his populist image?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

7. Do you know what the word insular means?

i don't think you do.

[KittyWampus]

14. Yes, definition was provided above. Provincial & Small-Town seems quite apt.

[cali]

19. lol I'm now convinced of silly agenda- casting Sanders

as a small town hick- synonymous with provincial.

about as silly and inane as it gets. There should be an award for this kind of nonsense. Like the Bulwer-Lytton award for the worst opening sentence in a piece of fiction- most inapt labeling of a politician.

[reddread]

9. He needs a proven hardbitten progressive winner who is not in bed with the opposition

like James Carville

[truebrit71]

10. The sarcasm smilie is to be automatically implied, yes?

...

[reddread]

12. I swing both ways

[Eleanors38]

20. LOL!

[jwirr]

22. LOL

[Recursion]

11. Good campaign managers and chiefs of staff come out of nowhere all the time

Hell, Harold Washington pulled David Axelrod out of a hat somewhere, and not very long after he took Obama to the White House -- after a career that included a detour with the John Edwards campaign in 2004.

It's probably the hardest two jobs in politics, and only a certain kind of person can do it, and you know them when you see them. But not before.