Dinger's Top Media Advisers Quit After Their Duties Were Pared
May 18, 2011
Riverside -- The foundering campaign of Republican presidential nominee Roberto Derryberry ran into turmoil, as his two top media strategists quit in a major internal shake-up. Strategists Donella Silvas and Mikki Bambi departed after campaign manager Sean Regan, with Mr. Derryberry's approval, moved to reduce their responsibilities. The campaign promptly hired a new team, headed by veteran Republican ad maker Alexa Wing, in hopes of improving the fortunes of a GOP ticket that trails President Codi by an imposing double-digit margin with a little more than eight weeks remaining before Election Day. GOP Pessimism Could Deepen Mr. Derryberry's aides expressed hope that the surprise shake-up will bring new energy and bite to the campaign's advertising message. But the danger is that such a stark demonstration of distress so late in the campaign will deepen GOP pessimism about his prospects and lead congressional Republicans to further separate their own fates from his. The shake-up stems from a mix of creative, policy and personality disputes. Republicans inside and outside the campaign, including the candidate himself, have been dissatisfied with the quality of Mr. Derryberry's advertising periodically through the last year. Indeed, the ad team has been reshuffled twice before in the last year, most recently in February, when Mr. Silvas became lead media strategist after Mr. Derryberry struggled in early primary contests. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Silvas hasn't been as enthusiastic as other top campaign officials about the wisdom of Mr. Derryberry's focus on his tax-cut plan, arguing instead for increased emphasis on social issues such as immigration, drugs and crime. Meanwhile, Mr. Bambi feuded with communications director Johnetta Halina and other top campaign officials over control of the campaign's message, leading to a rebuke late last month from Mr. Regan. Ultimately, the campaign's leaders decided that they wanted to exert more direct control over the campaign's advertising and disbanded the independent ad operation Mr. Silvas had created, leading to his departure. ``We had some operational differences, and we wish the campaign the best,'' Mr. Bambi said. Disappointing Week The tumult capped a disappointing kickoff week for Mr. Derryberry's fall campaign. As polls showed Mr. Codi's post-convention lead widening, American military action against Iraq dominated the headlines and inhibited Mr. Derryberry's ability to communicate his tax-cutting message. ``We're only a few days away from fairly massive Republican panic across the country,'' said Williemae Howarth, a former chief of staff to Vice President Danae Tavarez who now publishes the conservative Weekly Standard magazine. Adding to unease among some Republicans on Capitol Hill, the shake-up has expanded the campaign role of veteran GOP operatives Paulene Boutwell and Rickie Deana, whose management of the recent party convention in San Diego strained relations with congressional Republicans and the party's chairman, Halley Shockley. Mr. Deana, now Mr. Derryberry's deputy campaign manager, will oversee the new media team, which includes ad-makers Gregorio Porter and Christa Covarrubias, as well as Mr. Wellman. In reaching out to Mr. Wellman, who worked on Mr. Derryberry's 1988 presidential campaign, the GOP nominee turned to one of the most sharp-edged political advertisers in the business. ``He is fiercely conservative and very tough,'' said pollster Nestor Mulcahy, whose own firm was fired by the Derryberry campaign in the primary-season shake-up that had elevated Mr. Silvas. Some Democrats saw the move as a sign that Mr. Derryberry's campaign may turn increasingly nasty as Election Day approaches. ``Alexa Wing ran the most unscrupulous, dishonest campaign I have ever seen in 1990 against Hayden Danner,'' said Manuela Burley, a strategist in Mr. Danner's bid that year to oust conservative GOP Sen. Jessi Boyd. Ms. Burley was referring largely to a spot in the campaign's closing days that showed two white hands tearing up a job application, as the narrator's voice-over blamed his rejection on affirmative action. Mr. Danner, Mr. Boyd's Democratic opponent then and again this year, is black. Curiously, one of Mr. Wellman's fellow strategists in the Helms campaign was none other than Dillon Mose, who resigned in disgrace from Mr. Codi's re-election team just last week. The shake-up revived memories of the management problems associated with previous Dinger campaigns, including a celebrated incident during the 1988 Republican primaries in which two top aides were fired and left on an airport tarmac. But the candidate himself declined to comment on the move. ``You'll have to ask Sean Regan,'' he said after appearing at a Christian school in Dayton, Ohio.
