Congressional candidate Joanna Conti has hired Kimberly
Phillips as her campaign manager.
Conti hired Phillips after being turned down by several
other more experienced managers. Phillips was the field
coordinator for Mike Miles' failed U.S. Senate run, and
though she received high praise for her work in that role
and is well regarded, she has never managed a campaign on
any level. The Miles campaign, for that matter, will never
be mistaken as an example of how to get elected to office,
so any lesson to be learned there would be of the "what not
to do" variety.
Given Conti's reputation for being difficult with staffers
(she lost an unusual number of staffers during her last
campaign in CD-6), it's almost worth putting up a line on
how long it will be before Phillips resigns.
Phillips was also instrumental in Pat Waak's run for CO Dems Chair, I believe; that would give her some clout she didn't have when she was with the Miles campaign. And if she was well-regarded as a field co-ordinator in the Miles campaign, I fail to see how the rest of the Miles organization reflects on her abilities - what's up with that comment?
I think key to Conti's run will be her choice of media consultants. I've seen many comments about her ads last time out; is this the one area she could most improve upon?
Posted by: Phoenix Rising | March 30, 2005 at 03:42 PM
We learn from defeats. Many who were elected would do well to learn from the courage and integrity of Mike Miles and his campaign, sneering by Colorado Pols notwithstanding.
Posted by: lumberjack | March 30, 2005 at 04:31 PM
This is the problem with the Colorado Dem's you do not recognize that Mike Miles was and is the heart and soul of the Democrat party. You should stop attacking the Miles campaign and embrace it!
Posted by: Bethechange | March 30, 2005 at 04:34 PM
On the money. We should all learn from the last campaign -- the good and the bad. We have to elect leaders with the same heart and soul that Mike Miles and Howard Dean have displayed. Otherwise, we'll just cave to the Republicans...just look at Salazar.
Posted by: DonkeyKong | March 30, 2005 at 04:38 PM
If your information sources are as good as they seem, I wonder why you didn't indicate that Phillips may have signed on in a temporary role... Not stating this is setting yourself up for a successful prediction on a campaign you do not personally like.
Posted by: Phoenix Rising | March 30, 2005 at 04:45 PM
We've made no secret of the fact that we don't think Conti should be running for this seat, but we also don't know the details of Phillips' agreement as to whether it is permanent or temporary. The point is that a lot of others with a good knowledge of politics don't want to be involved with Conti and turned down her overtures to help. That's a pretty telling statement.
Posted by: Alva Adams | March 30, 2005 at 05:24 PM
As they used to say in Dragnet, Just the Facts Ma'am, Just the facts?
How many precincts did the Miles people walk? How many phone calls did they make?
Did not Salazar have more volunteers in the primary? Did Beth McCann or Mitch Morrissey have more volunteers in Denver than did Miles?
Heart and Soul/Grassroots! Please -- give me some hard numbers -- Miles got 23% and had few hard core volunteers -- they had a whole bunch of folks who go to meetins and wear lanyards and talk a good case but few workers -- hand the keys to that crew -- heck if Brad Friedberg had stayed in the race he'd have gotten as many votes as Miles
Posted by: vladimir | March 31, 2005 at 10:46 AM