MIAMI, Oct. 23 (UPI) — Jeb Bush’s struggling presidential campaign has begun pay cuts and layoffs for its staffers in what it describes as a course correction.
Bush began the campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination as a front-runner but has descended to middle-of-the-pack status, typically rating fourth or fifth, as candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson have taken the lead in polls.
With 100 days before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, the GOP’s first nominating contest, the Bush campaign said it would reduce payroll costs by 40 percent, beginning this week. The campaign is also cutting staffers’ salaries across the board, downsizing its Miami headquarters, cutting travel expenses by 20 percent and eliminating 45 percent of its overhead.
Saved from the cuts are budgets for television advertising and voter contact, such as phone calls and mailers. The moves are expected to save more than $1 million per month.
Campaign officials said the changes will allow them to shift more resources to New Hampshire, where it has 12 paid staffers, the most extensive field operation of all the candidates. The state’s primary vote takes place Feb. 9.
While rivals will likely consider the cuts an act of desperation, a Bush advisor told Bloomberg News they were made from a “position of strength.”
“This is about winning the race. We’re doing it now and making the shifts with confidence. We expect to win.”
Bush failed to dominate either of the two televised GOP debates, and advertising purchases in the millions of dollars in Iowa and New Hampshire have failed to increase his support. Current polls show he is in fifth place in Iowa, and third, significantly behind Trump and Carson, in New Hampshire.
“Jeb’s just blended into the second tier of the Republican pack,” said Doug Corn, the top fundraiser of former President George W. Bush’s campaigns. “When you run for president, you have to be very charismatic, you have to articulate extremely well and you have to show unbelievable amounts of passion.”
It is telling that when George W. Bush, Jeb Bush’s brother, successfully ran for president in 2000, he led in fundraising from his nomination campaign’s start to finish. Mitt Romney, when he sought the GOP nomination, was consistently in no lower than second place in polls throughout the nomination process.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.