Peter Schorsch
The inner workings of the Republican Party of Florida have been in the news this week after its Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer both exited the organization.
POLITICO Florida’s Matt Dixon scored a major scoop over the weekend with news that Brad Herold was leaving his position as ED to manage Ron DeSantis‘ U.S. Senate campaign. FloridaPolitics.com advanced that story with a report that veteran staffer George Riley would be Herold’s replacement.
Then, early Monday morning, POLITICO Florida’s Marc Caputo reported that the Florida GOP was planning a further shake-up amid financial struggles.
“In the coming days, Republican Party of Florida officials plan to announce a restructuring plan that, four GOP sources say, could include the departure of RPOF’s longtime chief financial officer, Richard Swarttz …” wrote Caputo.
Caputo was understandably proud of his and Dixon’s work, writing in Tuesday’s Florida Playbook that “if you want tomorrow’s news today, stay with us.”
That line may have been in response to a dig at the Tampa Bay Times’ Adam Smith, who 34 hours after Dixon broke the news about Herold’s departure woke up and wrote a blog post titled “Money woes take toll at Florida GOP.” In his column, Smith offers no credit to POLITICO Florida for the Herold or Swarttz scoops or to FloridaPolitics.com for the Riley scoop.
Instead, Smith wrote, “Politico reported that a ‘Monday Massacre’ may be in the works, but we haven’t heard that …”
First of all, by the time Smith wrote that, the “massacre” had already occurred. As Caputo noted in his Playbook, “On Monday morning, we exclusively reported sources saying Swarttz’s departure was likely. It happened half a day later.”
Second, and more importantly, it long ago ceased to matter whether Adam Smith had heard something for something to be taking place.
Smith had not heard about Herold’s departure or he would have first blogged/reported/tweeted about it. Smith had not heard about Riley’s promotion or he would have first blogged/reported/tweeted about it. Smith had not heard of Swarttz being let go or he would have first blogged/reported/tweeted about it.
The point is, just because Adam Smith hasn’t heard it, that doesn’t mean trees aren’t falling in the forest.
