April 22, 2010 01:36 AM UTC

So...What's Going on With Norton's Campaign?

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s taken us a few hours to sit back and digest the strange news that Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton has dropped her former campaign manager, Norm Cummings, and replaced him with Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry. As we think more about this move, there are a few things that become pretty obvious:

1. Norton’s campaign is clearly very worried about something. You just don’t make this move unless you have serious concerns about the direction of your campaign. Activist Republicans were not happy that Norton decided to petition onto the ballot and forego the caucus process, so that could be a reason. Or perhaps it’s the “anti-establishment” momentum of fellow Republican Ken Buck. Or maybe the growing financial disparity between Sen. Michael Bennet and, well, everyone else has the campaign nervous about its chances at winning in November.

Most likely, it’s a combination of things, but all point to the same conclusion: Norton and her advisors think a major change is needed NOW. If this isn’t a panic move, it’s damn close to one.

2. Josh Penry is not really going to be managing the campaign. This is no disrespect to Penry, but overseeing a massive statewide campaign is a particular skill; you can’t just pluck some well-known legislator out of the Capitol and hand them the wheel to a multi-million dollar effort. Being a candidate and being a manager are distinctly different skills, and it’s more likely that someone else is still going to be calling all the shots for Norton while Penry’s role is really as more of a spokesman/message consultant/PR stunt.

In fact, it was a different announcement, buried in The Denver Post blog entry, that is probably more important than the Penry news:

Also helping the campaign is Rich Beeson, who is coming on board as a general consultant. Beeson worked on U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s win in Massachussetts earlier this year.

3. So who is really calling the shots for Norton? Well-traveled GOP consultant Shari Williams had originally been chosen to shepherd Norton through the caucus process, but that obviously isn’t happening any longer. From what we understand, the true “manager” of the campaign remains husband Mike Norton, who will no doubt still have the final word, no matter what Beeson or Penry have to say.

The bottom line here is that the Norton campaign is most definitely in some form of disarray, and the Beeson-Penry changes signal something closer to a “panic” than just a general malaise. These are significant changes to make to a campaign that was long considered to be the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.