What was the matter with the old team?

Posted at 5:41 AM on June 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Anytime a candidate announces a new a "team" in the middle of a campaign, the antennae go up. Michele Bachmann, candidate for Congress in the 6th District, sent out a press release announcing a team described as a "who's who among Washington and Minnesota" operatives.

It's the "Washington" part of that where I'm sure the story is. But there was no "we'd like to thank so-and-so for serving in the capacity of XYZ up to now."

And apparently there were a lot of so-and-so's.

Here's the new lineup. The words are from the campaign.

Andy Parish , former staff aide in the Minnesota State Senate, serves as Campaign Manager.

Ed Brookover , Chairman of Political Practice for Greener and Hook, serves as General and Media Consultant. Brookover is a former Political Director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Glen Bolger , one of the Republican Party's leading political strategists and pollsters, serves as the campaign's chief pollster. Bolger is a partner and co- founder of Public Opinion Strategies.

Dan Hazelwood , direct mail guru and President of Targeted Creative Communications, serves as the campaign's Direct Mail Consultant.

Jennifer Bogart , one of the premier PAC fundraisers for Republican candidates across the country, serves as the PAC Consultant.

I'd say, clearly, the national Republican Party is entering the race in a big way. I Googled Brookover's name and found a Washington Post article on what happens when the "big boys" come into town. Prominent in the piece? Ed Brookover.

Glen Bolger may be familiar to real hard-core political junkies who get their news from NPR as he runs the firm -- one of them -- that NPR used in political polling and occasionally analyzed them for NPR.

Update 9:12 a.m. - Dan Hazelwood. His wife, Blaise Hazelwood, pops up in a Washington Post article in January 2003 which looked at his strategy in the '02 race.

Can't find much on him in a quick series of searches. He's been on lots of panels about campaigning, but so far I can't find an archived version of any of them.

Comments (3)

Would that be the Targeted Creative Communications of "What drives votes? FEAR" fame? I believe so. Excellent.

Posted by MN Campaign Report | June 21, 2006 7:06 AM

Minnesota GOP Chairman Ron Carey recently predicted that Minnesota would be the "Ohio of 2006."

His dream is coming true: Ed Brookover is the "former executive director of the Ohio GOP." (Columbus Dispatch 1/8/1995).

Posted by SJS | June 21, 2006 10:03 AM

I just started reading your blog on a more regular basis, so if you have already written about the IP endorsed 6th Congressional candidate, and I just haven't seen it yet, forgive me. If not, please look into learning and writing about John Binkowski.

http://www.jpbinkowski.com/

Posted by Rachel | June 22, 2006 11:55 PM

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