Herman Cain Loses Two Key Staffers

Perhaps it’s something about working for Georgians, but Newt Gingrich isn‘t the only GOP presidential candidate suffering from staff defections.

Pizza baron Herman Cain’s lone New Hampshire staffer has resigned from his campaign, reports the Union Leader’s John DiStaso.

Matt Murphy, a veteran Republican organizer who worked as a field representative for Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2008, stepped down as director of Cain’s New Hampshire campaign on Friday.

“There is no ill will toward Herman Cain,” Murphy told the Union Leader.  “There was a strategic difference and I left the campaign because of those differences.  The differences involved the New Hampshire strategy and how much investment the campaign should put into New Hampshire.”

Murphy felt that Cain, a political novice, wasn’t spending enough time in the state.  He indicated that he was also disappointed by the campaign’s denial of his request for additional staff members and office space in the Granite State, site of the first-in-the-nation primary.

Murphy’s departure closely follows the resignation of Jim Zeiler, the campaign’s regional field director.  Zeiler, a native of Wisconsin, resigned last week.  Before joining Cain’s campaign, Zeiler had previously worked closely with Tea Party groups as a grassroots coordinator for Americans for Prosperity, the Washington, D.C.-based conservative advocacy organization founded in 2004.

A spokesperson for Cain’s campaign said they will be naming a new state director in New Hampshire shortly.