Romney’s Former Political Director Joins Freedom’s WatchThere’s been a bit of a shuffle lately at Freedom’s Watch, the billionaire backed conservative attack group.
Early this month, Bradley Blakeman, a former Bush White House official who’d been the group’s president, left the group under something of a cloud. Unnamed conservatives grumbled that the group had not “figured out its role in the conservative/Republican universe,” and there were whispers that some had been unhappy with his leadership.
But today the group announced that Carl Forti will serve as the groups’ Executive Vice President and “will lead the group’s 2008 issue advocacy campaign.” That means, presumably, that Forti will have some say of where that $200-250 million goes.
Forti comes off of a stint as Mitt Romney’s political director — and before that, the National Republican Campaign Committee’s spokesman. Forti left the NRCC, where he was for more than seven years, after the 2006 election — of which he confidently said earlier that year, “Incumbents don’t get beat because there’s a bad national environment” (d’oh).
When asked whether the group had found a replacement for Blakeman, Freedom’s Watch spokesman Jake Suski said that was an “ongoing transition process.” So in other words, no.