The competition may have just been squeezed out of the Democratic primary for Rhode Island's 2006 Senate election. Secretary of State Matt Brown's prospects dimmed as he fired four key staff members Friday due to lack of funds.
"The campaign is paring down," said Matt Burgess, the campaign's director of communications, who was among those fired. In addition to Burgess, Finance Director Bob Pilon, Field Director Rich Pelletier and Media Consultant MacWilliams Robinson have left the campaign, Burgess said.
Brown's campaign has only $35,000 on hand for the September primary election, though his campaign has another $330,000 earmarked for the general election, according to campaign finance numbers provided to The Herald by the campaign. Under federal election law, contributions earmarked for a general election cannot be used in a primary.
Observers say the Brown campaign's money and staff woes may prove crippling.
"You can't really win a major Senate campaign on $35,000, and it's a very competitive primary," said Darrell West, professor of political science and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy.
Much of Brown's funding has come from individuals outside the state interested in unseating incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75, R-R.I., according to Jennifer Duffy, a Rhode Island native and managing editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
"Those are the donors who leave you first, especially in this cycle where there are a lot of places for their money to go," Duffy said. "I think he is going to run into some problems raising money out of state."
But Tim Patterson, Brown's campaign manager, remained optimistic.
"We've been at this for over a year, and we still have five months to go," he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "Our campaign is re-organizing and bringing in new people. Everyone else in this Senate race is a millionaire - we'll run leaner and smarter."
This was the second staff shake-up for Brown's campaign in just a few months. Patterson, a retired Providence police sergeant, replaced Dennis Newman as campaign manager in February.
Brown has outspent all other candidates for the Senate seat - on both sides of the political line. His campaign's initial strategy involved spending almost half a million dollars on early advertising to boost name recognition and financial support.
Apparent Democratic frontrunner and former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse showed restraint and did not respond to Brown's early television advertising spree, Duffy said.
The result is campaign war chest now totaling almost $1.4 million, which will prove a difficult challenge for Brown to overcome.
In a surprise turn of events, Brown's funds have been eclipsed by those of Marines veteran and political outsider Carl Sheeler, who is also running in the Democratic primary. According to numbers provided to The Herald, Sheeler's campaign has $211,000 on hand for the primary, mostly in loans. Only $87,000 has come from funds raised.
Brown's strategy to win early name recognition left him on shaky ground, West said.
"He front-loaded his strategy and it gave him a temporary boost in the (Brown University and other) poll(s)," West said. "But his campaign was hijacked by the campaign fund scandal and that has really torpedoed this whole candidacy."
Brown's campaign has been troubled since his apparent manipulation of campaign finance laws became public. His campaign solicited donations from contributors to the Maine, Massachusetts and Hawaii state Democratic parties in exchange for $25,000 in donations to his campaign from the three state parties. The situation is currently under investigation by the Federal Election Commission.
"Brown's situation is complicated," Duffy said. "Here is a guy who wants to run a campaign on ethics, but then here he has an ethics issue."
