Jeb Bush Works to Recover From a Shaky Start
Mr. Bush’s new campaign manager, Danny Diaz, is widely known in Republican circles as a hard-edge operative who is driven by trying to dominate daily news coverage with his candidate’s message or his rivals’ weaknesses. (The previous manager, David Kochel, is known as more cerebral.)
Mr. Diaz, who seared John Kerry in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2007 with charges of flip-flopping on issues, and other Bush aides are determined to develop new lines of attack against Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the two Republicans who represent the greatest threats to Mr. Bush’s nomination, according to his advisers and allies.
.. By hiring Mr. Diaz, Mr. Bush wanted to send a clear signal that “the culture of the Bush operation will now be a Pickett’s Charge engagement campaign with his main opponents,” according to one Bush ally.
.. But it was worth doing, they argued, because so few voters are closely following the race and because Mr. Bush’s team is expected to announce a huge fund-raising sum in July that will far outstrip his rivals and, they hope, give him momentum. This money is intended partly to give him a big advantage on the airwaves in the weeks before and during the burst of primaries and caucuses in March.
.. By standing his ground — rather than opening himself up to the flip-flopping charges that his aides intend to aim at Mr. Walker
.. Florida is critical to Mr. Bush for another reason: He believes that whoever loses the shared home state primary — he or Mr. Rubio — is not likely to recover.