NEW FACES IN CHARGE. Election 2008 has been hailed as a milestone in American cultural evolution on account of the strong showings thus far by a black man and a white woman running for the Democratic presidential nomination. But a look at George Washington University's highly bookmarkable comprehensive campaign 2008 site, Democracy in Action P2008, along with the list of campaign staff TPM Election Central's Matt Corley put together over the winter, shows that the campaign manager ranks are also unprecedentedly diverse.
- Two campaign managers are Latino: Luis Navarro is running Joe Biden's campaign and Patti Solis-Doyle (emphasis on the Solis) is running Hillary Clinton's.
- Four campaign managers are female: In addition to Solis-Doyle, Sheryl Cohen is managing Chris Dodd's campaign, and Beth Myers is running Mitt Romney's campaign. Shelly Ucsinski was running Tom Tancredo's campaign last fall, according to Corley, but now Bay Buchanan has taken on that role (at least temporarily).
While there have been three female campaign managers for leading candidates on the Democratic side in the past (Susan Estrich for Michael Dukakis, Donna Brazile for Al Gore, and Mary Beth Cahill for John Kerry), this is the first cycle to feature a woman campaign manager for a leading Democratic candidate who has held her position from the get go. Estrich, Brazile, and Cahill were brought in only after their candidate's original male campaign managers stepped down, and were not able to build their campaign machines from scratch. Romney's choice of Myers may well make him the first serious G.O.P. presidential contender with a female campaign manager (Pat Buchanan's sister Bay managed his three presidential campaigns, but he has not generally been considered a top-tier candidate), as well.
The Associated Press' Nancy Benac has more on diversity among the ranks of campaign advisers here.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
