Scully’s Departure From Amann Campaign
Leaves More Questions Than Answers
by Christine Stuart | June 22, 2009 7:00 AM
Posted to Election 2010
Patrick Scully, who joined former Speaker of the House James Amann’s gubernatorial campaign in January, says he is no longer working for the campaign.
“I am no longer employed by the Amann campaign because of lack of funding,” Scully said in a phone interview Friday. “I don’t have time to work for free.”
Scully said he is working on building his consulting company and his departure in no way “negates my thoughts of the candidate.”
Scully’s departure does raise questions about the viability of Amann’s campaign, although Amann scoffed at that idea on Friday. Amann said the campaign dismissed Scully for reasons he refused to discuss on the record, not vice-a-versa.
Scully said the campaign owes him “five figures,” which could conceivably be a problem because, based the campaign report filed at the end of April, Amann’s campaign had $4,110 cash on hand.
“We’re doing fine,” Amann said. “We’re moving forward.”
He said in the old days he would have raised $250,000 by now, but things are different under the new public finance system, under which Amann said it was difficult to spend money in the exploratory phase. That’s why the campaign switched over to a candidate committee, but in the process forfeited more than $20,000.
Under the new rules if the amount a candidate rolls over from an exploratory committee exceeds the total amount of qualifying small-dollar checks received, then the difference goes back to the state election fund. Amann transferred $35,488 from his exploratory committee into his candidate committee, but he had only raised about $9,545 in qualifying contributions of $100 or less causing him to lose more than $25,000.
Click here to see the campaign finance record of the transfer.
“It was a mistake,” Scully said of the campaign’s decision to switch from an exploratory to candidate committee so quickly.
Amann’s opponents — Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz — are still exploring a run for governor. Malloy’s campaign had about $105,297 cash on hand and Bysiewicz about $83,357 at the end of April.
But Amann, who has already opened up his campaign headquarters in Milford, said “we’re the only ones in the race.”
The last time Quinnipiac University polled residents on the 2010 gubernatorial match-up was back in February. At that time 79 percent didn’t know enough about Amann to have an opinion. Bysiewicz was the early favorite in a Democratic primary with 44 percent of the vote, followed by Malloy with 12 percent and Amann with 4 percent. Another 36 percent are undecided.
The same poll showed Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell beating Amann 61 to 21 percent.
On Friday Amann said he had hundreds of volunteers working for him and has plans for at least two fundraisers this summer.
Comments (2)
Posted by: George | June 22, 2009 3:42 PM
I can understand Pat is a grown man with mouths to feed, but his quote, "I don't have time to work for free," is a little cold in a campaign, and supposedly public service, context. The Amann campaign, obviously low on money relative to others in the primary, relies on unpaid volunteers and staff who are paid very little money, work terribly long hours, certainly don't receive any benefits, and do often-unrewarding work: phone banking, door knocking, lit dropping, envelope-stamping. People put forward this effort not because of the benefits they are reaping but because they believe in the candidate and desire positive change.
An effective communications director, it would seem to me, would be wise to avoid issuing statements like the above, which serve to undermine campaign morale and certainly don't portray a former boss in a positive light. It might actually be for the best, as far as the campaign is concerned, that Scully is leaving. A volunteer could probably provide more value on the campaign than a highly paid staffer who apparently receives more salary than he's worth and fails to release statements to make his former boss look competitive.
Posted by: Jennifer | June 22, 2009 11:18 PM
Jim Amann is again in the news for strange happenings within his campaign for Governor. And, again, not surprisingly it concerns campaign funding and outrageous spending and the massive amount of debt he's developed.
Jim Amann's inability to raise the kind of money he needs to lead a race of it's kind and his large amount of debt make me wonder how he plans to run the state when he can't even manage a small campaign and pay the people he asked to work for him.
I look forward to the next time the campaign has to report their spending and fundraising habits. Perhaps that will help paint the picture a bit more clearly and clear up the record for the staffers who left.
Successful campaigns employ experienced campaign staffers. Yes, volunteers assist campaigns, but having three people leave the campaign at one time, and with no real comment from Jimmy as to why, seems to negate Mr. Amann's comments that the campaign is going well. And, sorry, but having a headquarters in Milford does not mean you're doing well. Anybody can open a storefront and hang up a couple of signs. The campaign is in big trouble and from what I hear, Jim is to blame.
Pat Scully isn't the only person to depart from Amann's campaign. Ask around outside of Jim's campaign and you'll get the real story; not the typical Amann "spin".
Mr.Scully is only one of three campaign veterans to choose employment elsewhere. In the past week, Amann campaign has received a resignation of their campaign web site/technology director and the Field Director and scheduler left the campaign. I don't see that any of them were asked about what's happening. I for one, am interested.
I don't usually write on blogs but I think it's important to repsond. Throughout this year, I've had the chance to work with the Amann staffers and they were nothing but professional. And, I saw how hard they worked for Jim under what seemed like difficult working conditions. I've heard that Jim isn't an easy person to deal with.
This mass exodus makes me wonder what is really going on in Milford. There seems to be a lot more to this story than Jim Amann wants us to know.