April 11, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

Beauprez Campaign Says St. Martin Resigned

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Rocky Mountain News has more on a story we first reported yesterday:

Bob Beauprez’s campaign manager left the Republican congressman’s campaign for governor after just three months on the job, a spokesman for Beauprez said Monday.

Introduced as “permanent leadership” in December, Jack St. Martin joined the Beauprez campaign Jan. 3. By March 31, it was clear things weren’t working. “It wasn’t quite the right fit,” said John Marshall, who had been the deputy campaign manager.

Beauprez accepted St. Martin’s resignation and Marshall stepped into the top job. The campaign staff was told about the changes on April 3. Before joining Beauprez’s team, St. Martin served as a regional political director for the Republican National Committee and worked for the Christian Coalition and Americans of Faith.

“He’s an absolute consummate professional and he put the campaign’s interests above his own,” Marshall said.

St. Martin said the decision for him to leave Beauprez’s campaign was mutual but that he was disappointed. “I have a ton of respect for John, and Bob’s going to be the next governor,” St. Martin said, adding that he chose to leave out of consideration for senior management. “There was a little bit of disagreement about where the campaign should go,” he said.

Marshall and St. Martin agreed that the departure was amicable.

Outside the campaign though, there were other interpretations. Dick Leggitt, who is managing Marc Holtzman’s underdog campaign for governor, said the departure showed things weren’t running smoothly on Beauprez’s campaign. “You don’t change quarterbacks unless you’re losing,” Leggitt said.

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