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Rubio Campaign Manager on Walker Exit: It’s About Money

GOP presidential candidates have projected ambitious goals for their first day in office, if elected president. (File Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
GOP presidential candidates have projected ambitious goals for their first day in office, if elected president. (File Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

As news spread that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio’s Campaign Manager Terry Sullivan explained their differences between Walker’s campaign and Rubio’s.

“People drop out of campaigns because they run out of money,” Sullivan says at a forum for GOP campaign managers hosted by Google and National Review. “That’s why we run such a lean campaign.”

Sullivan said the Rubio campaign rarely gives out bumper stickers or yard signs, they suggest supporters go to their website and purchase them.

“It creates a culture and a mindset that’s very different; Marco flies commercial 95 percent of the time, always coach,” Sullivan said. “It’s all about how much money they’ve got into the direct voter impact.”

Sullivan also announced that Rubio’s campaign “just nailed down [Walker’s] new Hampshire state co-chair to endorse Marco.”

When asked how “shocked” he was by Walker’s decision, Sullivan replied, “Not really.”

Bobby Jindal’s campaign manager, Timmy Teepell, had the opposite reaction.

“It surprised me. … I didn’t expect him to drop out this quickly.”

Sullivan was asked if Rubio needed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to collapse in order for his candidate to win.

“We need everybody not named Marco to fizzle,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to stop being Charlie Brown to the Democrats’ Lucy.”

Walker’s Campaign Manager Rick Wiley was slated to appear but was a no-show. The forum moderator focused his other questions to campaign managers around Donald Trump’s campaign, which did not participate.


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