Wilson's congressional bid hits a snag

Jason Burke, largely responsible for rehabilitating state Sen. Charlie Wilson's congressional campaign, resigned as the Democratic candidate's campaign manager.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee brought in Burke to run Wilson's campaign for the 6th Congressional District seat only days after the Feb. 16 candidate filing deadline.
Wilson of St. Clairsville had failed to get the minimum 50 valid signatures on his nominating petitions. He had 96 signatures, but 43 of them came from people who don't live in the 6th District.
Seven other signatures were ruled invalid for a variety of reasons including the people signing the petition were not registered voters.
That meant Wilson's name wouldn't appear on the May Democratic primary ballot. At the insistence of state and national Democratic leaders, Wilson ran as a write-in candidate.
While he ran against two underfunded and relatively obscure candidates, Wilson and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent more than $1 million on the successful write-in effort. Wilson won the primary with about two-thirds of the vote as a write-in. He faces state Rep. Chuck Blasdel, an East Liverpool Republican, in the November general election.
Wilson acknowledged that it was ultimately his responsibility to make sure there were at least 50 valid signatures on his nominating petitions.
The fallout from the petition fiasco saw Wilson fire his son, Jason, as his campaign manager -- who supervised the campaign's collection of petition signatures, among other duties -- and bring in Burke as his replacement.
Burke had worked on congressional campaigns in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey and Texas.
Burke said he always planned to leave Wilson's campaign after the primary. But Burke said he stuck around for two more months because the primary depleted Wilson's campaign funds and he didn't want to leave until the campaign was on solid financial ground.
"If there was an inking the [Wilson] campaign wasn't in good shape, I wouldn't leave," Burke said. "This is tough on a personal and professional level. I have no doubt [Wilson] will be a congressman and a great congressman."
Burke is now running the campaign of a Democratic congressional candidate challenging a Republican incumbent in Kentucky.
Because of the money spent during the primary, Burke was the only Wilson campaign staffer for a while after the write-in victory.
Wilson replaced Burke with Joe Elcock, a seasoned campaign organizer who's worked on every Democratic presidential campaign between 1988 and 2000. Elcock most recently served as campaign manager for Coleen Rowley, a Democratic congressional candidate in Minnesota.
Wilson, a multimillionaire who contributed more than $500,000 to his primary campaign, also has two people working for him focusing on raising money for the general election.
Wilson is on his third campaign manager during a five-month span. Ryan Stenger has served as Blasdel's campaign manager since the beginning.
Is there any importance to the turnover at the top of Wilson's campaign? It depends on Elcock's ability.
Wilson's son had to go because of the petition disaster, and it's not terribly unusual for a "hired gun" like Burke to not stay for an entire campaign. If Elcock was to leave before the November election, that would certainly indicate the Wilson campaign is having problems.
Burke said his departure means the Wilson campaign is strong because he wouldn't have left otherwise.
While declining to comment on Burke's departure, Jessica Towhey, Blasdel's campaign spokeswoman, said hiring a third manager is more evidence that "Wilson's campaign has been an embarrassing collection of failures and missteps since Day One."