If true, I’m sorry to see this happen, not because I think Abbey was doing a terrible job and needed to stay there (the cynical reason). Far from it, I have a heck of a lot of respect for Abbey and think he got sold a line of crap with the Confederate flag issue.
Unfortunately, it will be Abbey who pays the price for the mistake:
Party activists have blamed Abbey, fairly or not, for Deeds’ listless campaign. Abbey will apparently retain a title and a role in the campaign, but the decisions will be made by Monica Dixon (a close associate of Sen. Mark Warner), longtime Democratic party staffer Kevin Mack, and Mo Elleithee. The latter will handle all communications and press, and he is a veteran of high-level positions with the successful gubernatorial bids of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as well as Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort.
Maybe Abbey was in over his head, but I seriously doubt it. You don’t take on Brian Moran and Terry McAulliffe of all people — win — and then get shunted on account of incompetence. This is Damage Control 101, and Abbey trusted the wrong crowd and got burned.
Damn shame.
UPDATE: Prof. Larry Sabato over at UVA’s Center for Politics tips the hand a bit:
The Deeds GOV campaign in VA, trailing badly in the polls, is being shaken up internally. Public announcements won’t reveal the full story.
Ouch.
UPDATE x2: Mohammed Elleithee says the campaign isn’t shaking up, just “beefing” up. That’s one way to look at it, though calling out Larry Sabato’s credibility certainly doesn’t seem to be the right tack — nor is it any secret that the Deeds campaign has demoted it’s brightest star, given all the #savejoeabbey comments on Twitter.