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October 23, 2015 01:03 PM UTC

Jeb! Bush Restructures Campaign, Slashing Budget and Staff

  • 31 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
"You're arm's off." "No, it isn't."
“Your arm’s off.”
“No, it isn’t.”

As Politico reports, things aren’t going well for former Florida Gov. Jeb! Bush as he seeks the Republican Presidential nomination:

Jeb Bush on Friday ordered a wholesale restructuring of his struggling campaign after suffering miserably in the polls despite massive spending and a deep donor network.

The campaign will cut payroll costs by 40 percent, downsize its Miami headquarters by more than 50 percent, reduce travel costs by 20 percent and cut 45 percent of spending on things other than media and voter contact. The cuts will begin on Nov. 1.

Although campaign officials insisted they’re still in strong shape, the cuts — combined with Bush’s stagnant poll numbers — suggest otherwise. [Pols emphasis] According to donors, some of whom called for Bush to rein in its spending, the campaign’s assurances about its organizational and financial advantages had worn thin; and the third-quarter financial report, filed last Thursday, gave further definition to their growing concerns about the state of a big-spending campaign failing to deliver results.

“These donors are not finding these explanations by the Bush team believable,” said one bundler, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There’s a lot of frustration that a lot of money’s been spent and it hasn’t moved anything.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Jeb! Bush, the “black knight” of the Republican field for President.

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31 thoughts on “Jeb! Bush Restructures Campaign, Slashing Budget and Staff”

    1. As badly as Romney and McCain were both doing at this stage, neither was slashing budget and staff. This might be the first election where all the sound and fury on the GOP wacko side doesn't peter out in the nomination of the establishment guy whose turn it's considered to be after all. Looks like the GOP Borg bit off more than it could chew when it assimilated the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus. Less "Resistance is futile". More getting blown apart from within. Less Star Trek. More bloody, gory Alien. Do AC and modster even know whose side their supposed to be on any more in the internecine wars? (Modster will probably have to look that up.)

      Oh, BTW….Fiorina's moment was sure brief. I think she got shorted the full 15 minutes.

      2. Yeah, I saw Carly's numbers are right back where they were pre-debate at around 4%. Fickle bunch, those base GOP voters…

        Even weirder is Trump and Carson holding such divergent positions on healthcare/Medicare (and not toeing the GOP party line in either case) still leading the pack and gaining some strength, even.

        As for Jeb! — he seems to have vacuumed up too much of his donors' cash into the SuperPAC, so trying to fund the actual campaign gets tough when you have go back to the same polluted well too many times.

        1. I don't think it's that weird.  I think Trump has the "keep your government hands off my Medicare" tea partiers and Carson got the Ron Paul, "let him die" set.

        2. I think you're right about Jeb! vs. the SuperPAC. Also Rick Perry. They looked at Citizens United and said "this is how I want to fund my messaging!" Then failed to understand that they needed cash to actually run the campaign.

      3. You're right about Mittens. True to his role model, Thurston Howell, III, Romney did continue to maintain appearances even when he was trailing the GOP flavor-of-the-month candidates at this point 4 years ago.

        But IIRC, McCain did downsize for a period of time when things were looking bleak. Then he won in NH and things started turning around.

        This is the beginning of the end for the end for the Bush family member who was rumored to be the Bush With the Brain. 

        1. But was McCain's downsizing enough to be described as "slashing"? I'd have to do some research to refresh my memory. I do remember him suspending his campaign for 15 minutes to charge to DC to  help solve the financial crisis and then not making a single suggestion once he got there. Probably because he clearly knew nothing about financial stuff. Guess team McCain didn't look ahead beyond the flying to the rescue part with an actual plan for the rescue part.

          It just seems like Jeb! is in more actual peril. I do remember dead in the water pronouncements about both McCain and Mittens but am wondering whether, unlike in their next candidate in line cases, that pronouncement will actually come true for Jeb!. That would be something entirely different but so is everything that's been happening in the increasingly wild and wacky GOP as the th 21st century gets a little older.

          Hear Carson surged ahead of The Donald in Iowa and The Donald is not amused. I am. Good luck, Carson, with winning a national election on taking away everyone's Medicare. Why not just run on drowning everyone's puppies and kittens?

            1. Quick search shows you are remembering correctly. I didn't remember that it was quite that bad. So either Jeb!'s campaign might follow the same pattern, coming back from dead in the water to nominee, or this time it's really different. The old GOP pattern of the next establishment guy in line might actually be really and truly a thing of the past.  

              Any guesses as to whether it's gong to be deja vu Clinton/Bush all over again in spite of the way things look now?  Here's what it looked like for McCain in 2007:

              Faced with disappointing second quarter fundraising returns — and with just $2 million cash on hand — the presidential campaign of John McCain limps on, but the one-time frontrunner faces enormous odds of winning the nomination that was once thought to be his for the taking.

              In order to stay in the race, the McCain camp cut dozens of staff positions on Monday while many senior staffers took pay cuts. Perhaps the deepest sign of trouble is that McCain is giving serious consideration to accepting federal matching funds. Federal cash would keep the campaign functioning through the beginning of primary season, but it would also force McCain to abide by strict spending limits — limits that hobble none of the other major candidates. "When you're dying, you often need a transfusion," said University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato, "This is a transfusion of cash, not blood, but the campaign is dying."

              http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1639606,00.html

              1. I think Davie has it right down below. Bush will only be around for as long as Bush is considered "the best" option. He just managed to pull 9% in a Florida poll of GOP voters, so my guess is he's on the way out. I see this election running a lot like the 2012 GOP nomination cycle: clown of the week/month reaches some peak then fades. Bush was nominated First Clown this time around – his campaign started at presumptive front-runner and declined from there.

                JEB! made the mistake of bringing up his brother's safety record, and Trump stepped on him for it – deservedly. Perhaps it's wise advice to make your weaknesses into strengths by claiming them, but not this time.

  2. By contrast, both Sanders and Clinton doubled Jeb! in the last fund raising quarter and in Clinton's case, her campaign is spending some of those funds now to build out state organizations.  For people in the real world, that would be considered a position of strength.  As Biden found out, she has an advantage right now in campaign structure and funding and everyone else except Sanders is playing catch up.

    1. That's something that's definitely going to be a factor with the non-pols who are now on top in the GOP race. In the past, the outsider and nut job candidates haven't reached the point of needing to build boots on the ground poliical organizations, data banks, campaign structure etc. They've been shaken out while it's still all about owning some news cycles. I don't think we're quite to the point where a real campaign can be carried over the finish line without those nuts and bolts and a true non-pol outsider can do anything more than run as a spoiler third party but not as the GOP or Dem nominee.

      1. I think Carson's passing Trump in Iowa is due to his willingness to spend time on pressing the flesh in the state, vs. Trump's media-centric strategy of getting headlines and tweeting comments to gain earned media coverage.  Trump is only slowly ramping up a field organization of unknown experience.

        There are a few months to go, so I'm not making any predictions about which is the Greater Clown to win the primary.

        As for Jeb!, I really don't consider him the traditional "next in line" GOP candidate — he’s never run before for President.  While there is a tremendous amount of good will among his backers for his father and brother, they are also hard-nosed realists.  If they think Rubio can carry the banner and capture the same or more demographics, they'll discard Jeb! like a rotten banana.  This coming debate should be a pivotal moment for the establishment candidates to start building some momentum, or having the life support keeping their campaigns limping along withdrawn.

        Sidenote: today's TIME magazine has a profile of CarLIE FIBorina and make no bones about her zero credibility and her "so what" attitude about telling the truth.

        1. Hadn't bothered with Time for years. It went through a period where it was pretty worthless. Didn't even know there was still a print version until I was looking for something to read on the plane home, having exhausted the magazine (Yes. Dellta still provides one. And a snack and beverage and no extra charge for a carry on. Only downside is the challenge of the Atlanta airport for changing flights. Delta schedules short layovers so bring your running shoes. Even with the tram) on the way out. It had a lot of very good articles, an excellent one on the wealth gap. I was very pleasantly surprised.

          1. My dad hooked me on TIME and interest in following current events more than 50 years ago, and I guess I just never could quit them 😉  He had probably 20 different subscriptions to current periodicals back then, plus TIME/Life books that he subscribed to covering world travel, science and a host of other topics.  He only had a 6th grade education, but his mind was a sponge for knowledge throughout his life.

            Regarding Delta and Atlanta — my wife just got back from NC via Delta.  Equipment issues in Charlotte and Atlanta caused her 3 1/2 hours of delays.  I'd rather hop in my car and drive cross country than fly these days.

            1. No time for a drive. Could only take a few days off for a family event in Ft. Lauderdale. Delta was the best deal that didn't involve a red eye or a ridiculously long flying day. Used to be two flights, morning and afternoon, direct with Frontier but now their only direct to Ft. Lauderdale is a red eye. You don't get so much as a free drink of water. You pay for your carry on. Besides, they really suck, customer service is terrible, screw ups abound. To add insult to injury it winds up costing more than airlines like Delta. Sad because we loved being loyal to our hometown airline back in the day and they were great. Flying ain't what it used to be for sure.

              We were a Newsweek and Time family. And Life. And both newspapers back when Chicago had the Sun Times in the morning and the Daily News later, which Dad got on his way home from work and they were both quality papers. The Tribune was for Republicans. We were pro-labor Dems. Grandpa was a VP of his union. No Tribune ever darkened our door.

              My 90 year old Mom still knows everything that's going on in national and world events and politics. My son could identify Gorbochev in a news magazine picture back when he couldn't even say it. He'd point and say Bobochoff.  What's wrong with us?

              1. Agreed on the airlines — time is a luxury, so as much as I long for the leisurely multi-state family vacation drives I took decades ago, flying is the only practical means these days.  We were loyal Frontier customers until they went ultra-low class, so yes, we switched to Delta whenever possible.  My wife has to travel often; I, only when absolutely forced.

                The Miami Herald and the Hollywood Sun-Tattler were our newspaper staples growing up.  Current event quizzes were fun in school because it was an easy A every time! 

                With the decline of the quality of newsgathering where hard news can't compete with infotainment and facts compete with fiction in the marketplace of ideas (now dominated by social media which simultaneously expands the information universe but filters the range of ideas presented — thus "the info bubble"), we have a serious problem with how to pass critical thinking skills on to our kids.

                1. And oops. The Magazine I picked up was a Newsweek, not a Time, and Newsweek really sucked for quite some time so really big surprise. Do they even have current events quizzes in schools anymore? Or teach how to write essays where you present a point and then defend it with facts as opposed to writing opinions based on nothing that are supposed to be equal with anyone else’s opinion? Haven’t had a kid in school for a long time so I really don’t know anymore.

      1. Well, I'm a heterosexual woman, sometimes even sweet, so I don't know why somebody thinks I've been looking for a sweet Asian gal all my life. My long drink of water blue eyed guy isn't even close.

    2. It's all the cookies a internet detritus you pick up by visiting sites like coloradopols.com.

      In my experience, copols is bad, dailycamera is obscenely intrusive. disqus is off the map. There's your big brother.

      If you find the asian ads offensive, install an ad blocker and clear your cookies and browser history every time you visit a site.

       

      I picked up 18 cookies just by entering this comment but they will quickly be gone.

      1. On a recent visit to see my daughter, my iPad (which I do not defend as heartily as I do my laptop) kept getting popup ads for purses. The internet retailers stalk her and anyone on her network mercilessly.

        1. Yeah but where would they get the idea I'm looking for Asian women? I'm not even looking for guys, Asian or other, since I've got one of my own who suits me quite nicely and I can't think what sites I visit that would lead to targeting me as in that market through cookies. Today I'm getting something for a 55+ community which at least makes sense though they'd have to drag me to a retirement community kicking and screaming. Also "weebly", whatever the hell that is.

          1. The ad spots are up for auction.  Most of the time you will see ads that are either targeted toward the site itself or towards your cookie.  In the event that nobody is targeting either, the cost for the ad space can drop to the point where spammers, porn etc, can pick up thousands of impressions for next to nothing.

            Or someone using your device is spending a lot of time searching Asian porn.

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