Foley Recasts Campaign Team.

Republican candidate for governor Tom Foley, formerly a candidate for the United States Senate, is expected to have a new campaign team in place soon.  His top political people, including political director Stephen Puetz and campaign manager Greg Keller, will be gone.  Others will also be departing in a wholesale remake of inexperienced candidate’s organization.

Veteran northeast Republican consultant Michael DuHaime, a heavy hitter in the universe of Republican pros, is expected to join Foley’s campaign. DuHaime is fresh off last fall’s winning Chris Christie campaign for governor of the Garden State.  Christie is winning attention for confronting the sort of budget abyss that the next governor of Connecticut will gaze into during and after this year’s campaign.  He’ll bring a more regional sensibility to the campaign.

Foley’s fortune has allowed him to have the airwaves to himself as his Republican opponents scramble to raise the $250,000 in small contributions required to obtain taxpayer financing of their campaigns.  In January, Foley was running ahead of his Republican rivals for the nomination but behind Democrats Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy in a general election match.

Foley’s few appearances taking questions from the press have not been a success.

Foley’s campaign and consultants did not respond to emails this morning.

UPDATE: Justin Clark, of the Foley campaign, who’s always pleasant, tells me that some of  the changes in the campaign team are rooted in Foley’s switch to the race for governor.  Others arose from the need to have a more local touch.  Greg Keller was going to stay until he was offered the executive director’s position at the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Stephen Puetz made tracks for Georgia to run a gubernatorial campaign there. Adam Schmidt will be leaving later this month. The Shawmut Group, stars of the Scott Brown campaign, are no longer with Tom Foley.

Republican big dog Michael DuHaime confirms he has joined the campaign. An astute reader points out that DuHaime also helmed the production that closed out of town known as the 2008 Rudy Giuliani for President campaign.  It will be the responsibility of the other campaigns to show that Connecticut politics can be as tumultuous and vivid as what they conjure up in New Jersey or at whatever secure location hosted Judith Giuliani and a working phone.