Clinton replaces campaign manager
After losing all of the weekend's caucuses and primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton announces that a longtime confidante will take the place of Patti Solis Doyle in running her campaign.
WASHINGTON — Coming off a downbeat weekend marked by a series of defeats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton shook up her staff today, replacing her campaign manager with a trusted confidante from the Clinton White House years in hopes of reinvigorating her candidacy.
The Clinton campaign announced that Patti Solis Doyle was being replaced as campaign manager even before the final Maine numbers arrived confirming that she lost the Democratic caucus to Sen. Barack Obama. With 95% of the precincts reporting, Obama was beating Clinton, 59% to 40%.
For the weekend Obama enjoyed a clean sweep, finishing first on Saturday in caucuses in Washington and Nebraska, and in a primary in Louisiana. Victories in those states give Obama fresh momentum as the two candidates pivot to the so-called Potomac Primary -- Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. A Clinton campaign official said privately today that the campaign expected to lose all three contests.
Clinton's campaign: An article in Monday's Section A about changes that Hillary Rodham Clinton is making amid a tight Democratic presidential race said the campaign had repaid a $5-million loan from the candidate. The loan has not been repaid.
An overhaul of Clinton's senior staff had been rumored for months as her national lead shrank and she struggled to keep pace with Obama's prodigious fundraising. Privately, some donors said the campaign was slow to tap the Internet as a source of funds, relying too heavily on Clinton's old fundraising network.
With the nomination up for grabs and no quick end in sight, campaign supporters, donors and staff wanted new energy and perhaps a different approach, and Clinton made the change.
"Every campaign, at a certain point, needs an injection of new blood, new leadership," said Lanny Davis, a campaign supporter and former Clinton White House special counsel.
In a statement, Clinton said: "Patti Solis Doyle has done an extraordinary job in getting us to this point -- within reach of the nomination -- and I am enormously grateful for her friendship and her outstanding work. I am lucky to have Maggie on board and I know she will lead our campaign with great skill toward the nomination."
The campaign manger is atop the pyramid, responsible for directing the staff, making final decisions on budgets and hiring, and consulting with the candidate. Solis Doyle, 42, could boast of a rapport with the candidate that few could match. The two teamed up in 1991 when Bill Clinton first ran for president. She later became Hillary Clinton's scheduler in the White House.
