Hales Dismisses Campaign Staff (Updated)

Mayor Charlie Hales
By NIGEL JAQUISS

Expect to see a new crew around mayoral candidate Charlie Hales as he moves toward a November face-off with State Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-Portland) in the general election. 


Today Hales asked for and received the resignations of half a dozen paid staff, letting go everyone with the exception of his consultant, Liz Kaufman.

Hales finished first in Tuesday's primary, narrowly outpointing Smith by 37 percent to 33 percent.

In recent election cycles candidates including Sam Adams, Tom Potter and Nick Fish have made significant staffing changes after primary elections, so the move while more sweeping than most such changes is not that unusual. 

"We had a great team and a great performance and now we're going to aim toward the new circumstances of the November election," Kaufman says.

Update 4:40 p.m.: Former Hales campaign manager Jessica Moskovitz gives WW the following statement: "I'm really proud of the work my team did to get us a win in the primary. They put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears, and I'm really proud of them."

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