From Wednesday's edition of The New York Times:

Architects of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Race Part Ways With 2020 Campaign
By Jonathan Martin and Sydney Ember
New York Times (Page A16)
February 26, 2019

WASHINGTON — The architects of the 2016 insurgent campaign for Senator Bernie Sanders abruptly parted ways with his 2020 campaign on Tuesday, dealing him a surprise blow one week after he entered the presidential race with an emphatic show of fund-raising strength.

The consultants, Tad Devine, Julian Mulvey and Mark Longabaugh, said in a statement that they were “leaving because we believe that Senator Sanders deserves to have media consultants who share his creative vision for the campaign.”

Their decision was unexpected: The three produced the announcement video that Mr. Sanders released last week, which has helped him raise $10 million, and they had been intimately involved in the planning of a second White House bid for the Vermont senator.

The rupture infuriated some of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, who feared it would detract from a stunning financial haul that they had hoped would quiet the doubters about a second Sanders candidacy. The shake-up was also the latest indication that Mr. Sanders is going to run a different kind of race this time around — or at least, that his advisers want him to do so.

In a brief interview, Mr. Longabaugh said he and his partners, who produced some of Mr. Sanders’s most memorable 2016 ads, had strategic differences with the senator and his wife, Jane, who is his closest adviser. “We came to realize this was just not going to work,” he said, noting that the disagreements “built over time.”

Mr. Longabaugh, who said he told Mr. Sanders this morning of the decision, would not specify the nature of the disagreements...

According to the NYT article: "Mr. Sanders has been taking steps toward a more sophisticated and modern race this time."

The NYT piece continues on to note:

• The candidate didn't want to overspend on TV ads, indicating that they would "spend far more time and attention to building up a national organization, as well as ones in early nominating states, and would pour money into digital organizing efforts."

• The report also notes that Tad Devine, Julian Mulvey and Mark Longabaugh ("DML") had "little say" in Sanders's recent hiring of former ACLU political director Faiz Shakir as his new campaign manager, replacing Jeff Weaver. But Shakir, who had not even yet met with DML, had no idea that they were disengaging from the campaign.

• The campaign is seeking to hire a more diverse staff this year. And, they're noting that Mr. Shakir is "the first Muslim in American history to run a presidential campaign."

There's some loose speculation in the balance of the story, including:

• Some of Bernie's supporters were upset because they were under the impression that his media/consulting team "walked away" due to the likely possibility that "they were not going to have the same influence as they did four years ago."

• Until Tuesday, it was reported that Mulvey and Longabaugh "...had been expected to play central roles in 2020."

• Also on Tuesday, Longabaugh hadn't ruled our working for another Democratic candidate, although he refused to comment on it.

There's a bit more to the story (see the link at the top of this post), including the reminder that Bernie's first major campaign appearances are upcoming this weekend in Brooklyn (NY), Selma (AL), and Chicago (IL).

It had been reported, earlier this month, that the Sanders folks were conferring with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tv advertising consultants. And, having spent a lot of time in the ad business, when you're the current "agency of record" (in this instance, DML) for a client, and you're reading in the press that said client is, potentially, shopping their business elsewhere, that obviously/inevitably creates issues with the current agency!

Slightly off-topic, but a possible harbinger of media nightmares to come for team Sanders...an interesting catch from fellow C99P member, Snode:

Did CNN Stack the Audience Against Bernie Sanders at His Town Hall?
By Jacob Weindling
Paste Magazine
February 26, 2019 | 1:32pm

Monday night, Bernie Sanders did a town hall on CNN, and for the most part, he was asked substantive questions and answered in kind. One minor exception came in a question about the sexual harassment that took place in his 2016 campaign. His response to the initial reports was too dismissive, and last night he wasn’t able to fully articulate how he would stop it from happening again, other than saying that his campaign is committing lots of resources and he will have the “strongest protocols” and utilize an “independent commission” that people can bring their complaints to, without really elaborating on who or what that commission would do.

The bigger problem here is that we find ourselves in a confusing situation thanks to cable news not adhering to basic standards of journalism. (Unfortunately, that’s an evergreen sentence.) When I watched the town hall live last night, this question seemed completely normal and well within the bounds of what Bernie was brought there to talk about, but now that it has been revealed that the question was asked by an intern at a major lobbying firm, you cannot help but wonder about the intent behind this, as well as CNN’s role in selecting this questioner while not disclosing her workplace.

“It will not happen again.” Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses allegations of sexual harassment on his 2016 campaign and describes protocols he says his campaign has implemented. #SandersTownHallhttps://t.co/ZcDCSQIMOmpic.twitter.com/qRMMiHCz5O
— CNN (@CNN) February 26, 2019

This is a Public Policy Intern at one of the biggest lobbying firms in DC Cassidy and Associates. pic.twitter.com/qNszxq6Tne
— Mike Gapes Fan Account (@respecteconomy) February 26, 2019

Again, Bernie's campaign issues with sexual harassment are a major storyline going into 2020 and given that he still hasn't completely addressed it, he should be asked these questions. The problem is that when the question comes from an intern at a major DC lobbying shop—and that fact is not disclosed—you cannot help but wonder who really asked that question of Bernie. And a closer look at Cassidy & Associates' financial partners paints a picture of a group that really, really would not enjoy a Sanders presidency...

Paste Magazine named names and reported the details of CNN's blatant, small-audience "stacking" effort...

...There were a bunch of audience members who are far more active in politics than CNN disclosed. Watching the town hall live made it seem as if these were just folks from all walks of life, when in reality many of these supposedly innocuous questioners were political operatives in one way or another, as this thread revealed.

— CNN called Tara Ebersole a “former biology professor” when her LinkedIn page lists her current job description as “Chair, Baltimore County Democratic Party” since 2016. Further, her husband was part of Hillary Clinton's leadership council in Baltimore in 2016.

— Abena McAllister was labeled “an active Democrat,” which is far less descriptive than the Charles County Democratic Central Committee's description of her as their Chair.

— Yunjung Seo was simply called a “George Washington Student” by CNN, despite her LinkedIn page saying she also works for the Katz Watson Group, a fundraising and consulting outlet.

— Michelle Gregory was simply listed as a “Maryland voter” by CNN, but a cursory Google search reveals her to be much more active in politics than just voting.

Then there's this:

Similarly, The reparations question was offered by an Aspen Institue alum. She works for a non-profit who's board directors includes execs at Booz Allen Hamilton and the Carlyle Group https://t.co/phzN6uXnXr
— Mike Gapes Fan Account (@respecteconomy) February 26, 2019

I watched the entire town hall last night, and none of the questions asked by these people resonated as unfair to me...

Judge for yourself...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Pj-lZKMRE]