So there’s been one bit of good news over the last few weeks with the Stewart campaign — the hiring of Spence Rogers as campaign manager, a tidbit of embargoed information that folks should take seriously. Rogers is a known political quality who ran Ted Cruz’s presidential bid in Iowa… and is a known ground pounder.
That’s where the good news stops.
Bad news came last week with the revelation that Operation Wetback II didn’t work out so well for Prince William County, as driving out the locality’s Hispanic population (both legal and illegal in the wake of the “probable cause” ordinance) has had the net effect of driving up violent crime in Prince William — not resolving it. From WMAL:
There have been 22 homicides in the Prince William so far this year, compared to 10 last year.
This year the District has so tallied 134 homicides so far while compiling information and Fairfax County so far had 18 homicides. To some of the nearby counties, the idea of 22 homicides does not seem like a number to focus on. But the numbers in Prince William County are the highest in the county since the county began tracking homicides in 1975. The next most deadly year was in 2006 when there were 16 homicides.
…and then there comes this gem of a news item.
Vincent Harris — the guy with Tom Davis’ rolodex and a string of political defeats to follow him — is going to head up Stewart’s digital.
Harris Media, which has worked with top presidential and senatorial campaigns, such as Rand Paul and Ted Cruz’s historic win in 2012, recently displayed his digital expertise by leading the online effort propelling Benjamin Netanyahu to victory as Prime Minister of Israel.
Also notable but not mentioned? Harris recently ran Senator Mitch McConnell’s social media outreach:
As for the gig with Netanyahu, it’s hard to say what Harris Media actually did. None of our friends within the Likud apparatus seem to be able to identify what he did or whom he did it for — other than an instance of buying and placing web ads.
Of course, if you really want a good read, check out the employee reviews over at Glassdoor from former employees who are less than positive about Harris’ character.
Naturally, Stewart is probably paying Harris for all of his fine social media advice and experience… gems of wisdom from people in their mid-20s such as this:
“Is 23 seconds the ideal video length?” Harris asks, interrupting the well-rehearsed presentation. The most successful Facebook videos often clock in at 15 to 30 seconds, and Harris read a study suggesting 23 seconds might be the sweet spot.
Damn.
I mean, just pause right there. I’ll bet those morons over at the Gillespie campaign are putting out videos that are 22 or even 24 seconds long.
Frank Wagner? That clown goes two freakin’ minutes! And does Denver Riggleman even know what digital is out in Nelson County as he’s “killing whiskey and makin’ terrorists” or some nonsense?
But Stewart staffers are saved from such a dismal fate, though despite living their own personal Greek tragedy of angst and turmoil fretting over the precise length of a Facebook video please Jeebus save us, the Stewart campaign need only to ask St. Vincent de Harris… and deus ex machina the answer is given.
23 seconds, bitches.
God, I hope Stewart isn’t paying money for that… because Trump sure as hell didn’t:
As if the Trump campaign couldn’t get any weirder, it apparently hired, then fired, a top-level digital operative in the last few days, a well-placed source tells Fast Company.
Earlier this week, the campaign hired Vincent Harris (Harris Media), who was chief digital officer for Rand Paul’s presidential bid and for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 2014 reelection campaign, reported Politico. A Breitbart storythe next day quoted Trump aides saying Harris had done contract work, but was never hired.
Now Fast Company has learned that Harris was dismissed by the Trump campaign after leaking to Politico that he was working for the campaign. Oops.
Politico — the same outlet that wrote the 23 second puff piece above — echoed a similar sentiment regarding the firing from a “subcontracting” arrangement that mimicked the relationship Harris had with Netanyahu. . . or more accurately, those involved in the Netanyahu campaign.
Harris tried to spin the encounter as a two-day engagement followed by a mutual parting of ways. But as quoted by Politico:
One source close to the Trump campaign said of Harris: “He is gone.”
We will leave that to the reader as to whether or not that screams amicability, or even good things for the Stewart campaign.
One thing this does evidence is that Stewart is willing to pay money for digital. Whether the campaign is going to get the bang for that buck is entirely dependent on how long the damn Facebook videos are… because that’s really damn important, ladies.
23 seconds.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, let’s not forget this gem of a moment when Harris did this to Rand Rand Paul:
Paul answered hostile questions from Twitter users that campaign staffers put in front of him as a gag. He delivered the type of language you don’t usually hear from a presidential candidate. “Is Rand Paul still running for president? I dunno,” he answered. “I wouldn’t be doing this dumbass live streaming if I weren’t.”
Shoulda kept it to 23 seconds. Dumbass.
Oh and if that doesn’t grab ya, then look at Politico’s article on it:
“This is not live, we can’t edit this, right?” Paul asked with a smirk.
A spokesman for Paul’s campaign said that the context of the remark was that he was reading mean tweets and taking other questions and was being “playful and trying to make a joke.”
The campaign is also selling a $20 T-shirt “I Watched Rand Paul’s Livestream and All I Got Was This Dumbass T-Shirt.”
Sorry, Rand… that was live.