Saying that Herman Cain’s campaign had become “just too messy,” Tea Party activist Charlie Gruschow of West
Des Moines resigned from the pizza magnate’s campaign on Sunday. Gruschow’s resignation follows the recent departures of Tina Goff, Cain’s Iowa organizational director, and Kevin Hall, who had been in charge of organizing a strong turnout for the Atlanta businessman in the Ames Straw Poll next month.
Gruschow, a founder of the Des Moines Tea Party, had been Cain’s first organizer in the Hawkeye State.
“I’m still optimistic about Herman and the campaign,” said Gruschow, who had been with the campaign since the outset. “But I honestly didn’t feel right about everything.”
As with the campaign’s previous departures, Cain’s spokesperson downplayed Gruschow’s resignation, saying that the split was amicable.
“This has not been devastating to our campaign in any way,” Ellen Carmichael told POLITICO. “This is not something that has deterred us from making hires in Iowa or across the country. We’re in great shape.”
Cain, who’s running third in Iowa with ten percent of the vote according to a recent Des Moines Register poll, announced earlier today that Larry Tuel will serve as his state director. His campaign also announced that it had hired three field staffers to help bolster its efforts in the first-in-the-nation caucus.
Cain, who has already made more than twenty trips to the state, will return to Iowa on Monday for the grand opening of his campaign headquarters in Urbandale.
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