Brat campaign "shake-up"

The local conservative blogs are slightly a-buzz this week, as Dave Brat's campaign has announced a new campaign team... again.

In a Facebook post dated Tuesday, the campaign noted that Amanda Chase is out and Phil Rapp is in. Rapp apparently helped run Brat's volunteer outreach (a pretty successful program, if Dave's primary results mean anything). He's also brought on national campaign consultant Tim Edson.

Bearing Drift pitched the news as just "changes to Brat's management team. But JHPolitics' Justin Higgins called it "worrisome," noting that the "newbies and proven losers" were taking over. The Washington Post called this another in the Brat campaign's "growing pains," while the Washington Times called it a "shake-up."

Even over at Bearing Drift, their commenters were worried. Brian Schoeneman tried to calm everyone down, noting that he liked Edson despite his recent track record (0 for 3 in his last three campaigns, apparently).

Clearly this is not good "optics" in the sense that the campaign does look disorganized. But that's probably to be expected - Brat ran a shoestring-and-leather operation during the primary, and he can't be expected to professionalize his campaign overnight. Still, he's got to get his act together soon, or he'll attract too much attention from national Democrats. As long as the district is considered safe Republican, Dave can take some time getting organized. (And Larry Sabato says it is, so it must be true.)  But the honeymoon is soon ending.

Meanwhile, Jack Trammell is starting to get the word out.