The US: One of the US Democratic Party hopefuls who would like to displace President George Bush in the White House, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts fired his campaign manager yesterday and replaced him with a veteran Democratic operative.
Mr Kerry, who has been struggling to reinvigorate his campaign, replaced his manager and longtime aide Mr Jim Jordan with Ms Mary Beth Cahill, who has worked for the lobbying group Emily's List and for Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, also from Massachusetts.
"I have decided to make a change at the top of my campaign leadership," Mr Kerry said in a statement.
Mr Kerry, accompanied by campaign chairwoman and former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, informed Mr Jordan of the switch at a meeting in Boston on Sunday night.
Mr Kerry entered the Democratic race for the right to challenge Mr Bush in 2004 as an early favourite but has fallen well behind former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, trailing him by double digits in opinion polls in the critical early Primary state of New Hampshire, which borders Massachusetts.
The campaign is entering an important two-month dash to the first contests in Iowa on January 19th, and New Hampshire on January 27th, where Mr Kerry must win, or finish a strong second to Mr Dean, to keep his campaign alive. "There is a hope that this shakes up the campaign and provides some spark and momentum," a Kerry aide said of the change.
Mr Kerry said he asked Mr Jordan, a former head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee who had run Mr Kerry's campaign since it began last December, to continue in the role of a senior strategist.
Mr Jordan also worked in Mr Kerry's Senate office in 1999 when Mr Kerry was contemplating, and then rejected, a 2000 presidential bid. "From the bottom of my heart I thank Jim Jordan for his leadership, extremely hard work, unsurpassed loyalty and devotion to me, to this campaign, to the people who have worked with him," Mr Kerry said.
No other staff members were involved in the shake-up and it was unclear what changes might follow the leadership shift.
The Kerry campaign has been been plagued by a struggle for power between Washington-based aides like Mr Jordan and longtime Kerry advisers in Boston. The switch from Mr Jordan to Ms Cahill could signal he is relying more on Massachusetts-based advisers. The campaign also has struggled to find the right response to the rise of Mr Dean, who began the race as a longshot but has surged past his rivals on the basis of his outspoken criticism of Bush and the Iraq war.
After largely trying to stay above the fray and not attack Mr Dean in the campaign's early months, Mr Kerry has launched strong attacks on Mr Dean's record on guns, race, Medicare and other issues in recent weeks. - (Reuters)