UPDATE: I’m told that
the Friday after Gov. Rick Snyder won the August 2010 gubernatorial primary in
spectacular fashion, John Weaver was hardly the only campaign official to
get the ax.
On that Friday morning, Snyder fired Weaver, phased out Grand
Rapids consultant John Yob (who has developed a long trail of enemies in GOP
politics), ousted nearly the entire communications team, and transferred two
other staffers to the state Republican Party.
his fill of divisions between staffers loyal to Weaver and those loyal to Yob.
a “family business” item had to be settled (see below), Snyder and key underlings
told everyone to leave the campaign office around 10 a.m. – go for a walk, an
early lunch, whatever.
In the meantime,
Weaver and two key PR people/spokesmen, Michael
Levoff and Jake Suski, were physically escorted from the office. Their
desk materials were packed up for them in advance.
As the
remaining staff returned, as instructed, in 20-minute shifts, they were
explicitly told not to have any contact with those who were tossed overboard.
campaign alums of 2010 simply refer to it as “Black Friday.”
Credit Susan Demas for a nice catch, spotting a passage in a new Politico Magazine story that is described as nerdy Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Godfather” moment.
Demas, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, references a piece by Jason Zengerle, “Winning Isn’t Everything,” about John Weaver, a high-priced Republican campaign consultant. A highly controversial figure in the world of GOP campaign consulting, Weaver was the top strategist for John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and he is currently running John Kasich’s presidential superPAC.
“Sure enough, on November 2, 2010, Snyder was elected the 48th governor of Michigan. But Weaver was not the one to give Snyder the good news.
“That August, less than a week after the primary triumph, Weaver, according to multiple sources, had been dropped as Snyder’s strategist. The move was handled in such a quiet fashion that it has not been made public until now, more than five years later. One Snyder campaign aide likened it to a scene from The Godfather. ‘It was the settling of all family business,’ the aide told me.
“Another Snyder campaign aide recalls that on the day of Weaver’s exit, ‘They made sure there was nobody in the campaign office. They divided everyone up and told them, ‘This is what is happening.’’ “According to multiple people familiar with the matter, aides to Snyder had discovered evidence of what they considered to be irregular spending in the campaign’s media buying and phonebanking operations. When these allegations were brought to Snyder, these sources say, advisers talked him into handling the matter quietly. ‘If you’re running for governor as the nerd accountant,’ says one Michigan Republican with knowledge of the episode, ‘it’s not really what you want to see on the front page of the Detroit Free Press.’
“Privately, Snyder tried to downplay the financial nature of the dispute, telling one person that he dumped Weaver because the consultant ‘did not have the same personal values’ as the candidate.”
