Charlie Smith today announced that longtime advisor and friend Ethan Eilon is resigning as campaign manager.
Eilon's resignation comes amidst the MS College Republican Chairman's accusations that the NewCRNC campaign engaged in delegate tampering and chairman intimidation in Mississippi. Smith, however, contends that Eilon's resignation was decided "last week."
As many know, Eilon has been also been serving as Executive Director of the CRNC while working as Charlie's Campaign Manager, leading some to question the ethics of the setup.
The full text of Smith's email follows.
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Greetings!
I write today to announce with bittersweet feelings that my close friend and New CRNC campaign manager, Ethan Eilon, is stepping down as campaign manager and moving on to a new challenge where his strengths and skills will be put to great use.
From Ethan's days as the Victory organizational director for Bush-Cheney '04 in Colorado, the Colorado Federation of College Republicans and the New CRNC campaign manager, he has developed a stellar track record of success and earned a reputation as one of the hardest working and brightest College Republicans in the country.
He helped me build the Colorado CRs into one of the premier grassroots organizations in Colorado, as recognized by the numerous campaigns we had the pleasure to work with. During the 2006 election cycle, Ethan was instrumental in achieving the contact of more than 40,000 voters.
With Ethan's help, New CRNC proposed some of the most consequential reforms the CRNC has seen to date. He helped build a national movement to make the CRNC more ethical and efficient, and he has helped prepare our organization for the revolutionary changes that are needed to bring us to the next level.
I believe that Ethan will become one of the great political minds of our generation, and we couldn't have been more fortunate to have him on our team. The fruits of Ethan's hard work will serve as resources to thousands of CRs now and in the future. Ethan is a tremendous political operative, but more importantly, he is also someone who always holds the best interests of our organization at heart.
Since Ethan and I decided last week that he would be moving on, he and I worked together and picked the best possible person to take over as campaign manager. Effective right away, Immediate Past Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama Blake Harris will start as campaign manager for New CRNC.
Blake took a struggling organization in Alabama and turned it into one of the most active, best organized state federations in the country, and before that he was a chief operator in Your CRNC. He's earned a record of results and principled standards we can all learn from.
Of course, I will miss Ethan working with me daily, but I couldn't be more pleased that Blake Harris has accepted the position to move us forward through the election.
Please join me in wishing Ethan well and welcoming Blake Harris!
Thank you,
Charlie Smith
