Personnel Is Policy on 2016 Campaigns

Politicians should be responsible for the people who staff their campaigns, right? Yes. Now, let’s try to do it the right way.

Politico had a nice piece about recent problems that Republican presidential candidates have had with campaign staff, a few of whom have said politically inappropriate things, mostly on Twitter or other social media platforms.1426868950876 As Jonathan Topaz and Katie Glueck correctly point out, the notion that staff who misbehave and get caught also get fired is nothing new. What's new is that mid-level staffers now come with easily accessible public records, making mini-scandals about past actions or ill-considered statements easy pickings for reporters or opposition researchers from rival campaigns.