THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 g
Page A-9
Campaign managers ‘making sure the day-to-day happens’ Organizers for county executive candidates juggle responsibilities, long hours n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Dr. Michael Kerr, medical director of Department of the Emergency Department Services at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, prepares to test patient Ricardo Eugenio, 42, of Aspen Hill, for the flu.
Medical center sees spike in flu cases n
Even those vaccinated might not evade this year’s strain BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
If you haven’t gotten a flu shot, it’s not too late to help protect yourself from a particularly harsh strain of the flu. Tuesday morning, Ricardo Eugenio, 42, of Aspen Hill, arrived in the emergency department at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney. The otherwise healthy man was suffering from body aches and fever. He said multiple members of his household recently had the flu. Eugenio said he started feeling sick on Sunday. By Tuesday, he was pretty miserable. Dr. Michael Kerr, the medical director of the Department of Emergency Department Services at MedStar Montgomery, was confident his patient had the flu, even before the the nasal swab tested positive. Kerr said the hospital is just start-
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ing to feel the effects of flu season. “The flu has started to hit the country, and has been most prevalent in the western and southwestern states,” he said. “It is progressing across the country and is now hitting the East Coast.” Kerr said over the past two to three weeks, many people have arrived in the emergency department with flu symptoms and tested positive for Influenza A and B, the most common types. “It’s a particularly bad strain,” he said. “A lot of people are getting sick even though they have been vaccinated, but those who have been vaccinated tend to have less severity. I still highly recommend getting a flu shot.” At MedStar Montgomery, doctors are seeing 10 to 20 patients a day with flu-like symptoms. “We’ve seen worse in previous years, but the season is just starting,” Kerr said. Flu symptoms include body aches, fever, fatigue, and lack of appetite. Other symptoms, such as sinus congestion and sore throat, are
not associated with flu, and are usually due to a common cold or upper respiratory infection. The flu is caused by a virus, so antibiotics don’t work. Kerr said usually healthy people can be treated for the flu by resting, drinking lots of fluids, and taking Motrin or Tylenol. Most can be treated by their physicians, but he recommends that people who are very young or very old, have other health problems, are unable to keep fluids down, are unable to control fever, or are having trouble breathing seek treatment at the hospital. Some antiviral medications can be given, but Kerr said that to be effective, they need to be started almost immediately after the onset of symptoms. Usually, by the time he sees the patients, it is too late. To prevent flu, Kerr recommends getting a flu shot, washing hands and hoping for the best. “And if you do get the flu, don’t go to work,” he said. thogan@gazette.net
With little more than six months until the June 24 primary, the three Democratic candidates for Montgomery County executive will be highly visible around the county, knocking on doors, attending events and meeting with supporters. Often, each candidate — Executive Isiah Leggett, former Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg — will have a campaign manager by his side, responsible for coordinating his appearances and helping him stay on time and on-message. Leggett campaign manager Scott Goldberg said a manager’s biggest job is to “make the trains run on time. Duncan’s campaign manager, Kurt Staiger, said the manager is the one who “keeps all the balls in the air.” Andrews’ manager, Chandler Bellanca, described a manager’s responsibilities as “making sure the day-to-day [oversight] happens.” It requires a head for logistics and an ability to balance short- and longterm goals, as well as overseeing the campaign’s message, staff, volunteers, fundraising and outreach, among other assignments. “Campaigns are essentially about lists,” Goldberg said. The job also requires stamina, with work weeks that often stretch up to 80 hours or more. “There’s just a ton of time that you have to commit [to the job],” Staiger said. The long hours mean managers tend to be younger. Bellanca and Staiger are both 27. Goldberg is 31. The candidates they’re working for are much older — Andrews, 54, Duncan, 58, and Leggett, 68. The age range the managers are in is usually when you have worked on several campaigns and acquired the amount of experience to manage a campaign on your own, Bellanca said. It’s also the age when people tend to have fewer attachments, such as spouses or children, and can afford to spend that much time on the job, Staiger said.
Bellanca worked for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) of New York in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, then on several campaigns in New York and elsewhere before being hired by Andrews, who said he expects to formally announce Bellanca’s hiring next week. He also worked as a volunteer coordinator in former state Sen. Robert J. Garagiola’s unsuccessful campaign in the 2012 Democratic primary for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. Staiger was on the other side of that race, working as deputy campaign manager for the eventual victor, Congressman John Delaney (D). Goldberg has also run for office himself — for the House of Delegates from District 16 in 2010. Being able to see a campaign as both a staffer and a candidate has given him “invaluable” perspective that you can’t truly have unless you’ve had your name on a ballot, he said. Each county executive candidate knew what he was looking for in a campaign manager. Leggett said he wanted someone local who understood Montgomery County, but also could identify with young people and understood technology, particularly the techniques needed to run a modern campaign. A campaign manager now has to have a grasp of the latest tools for campaigning, including technology, websites, email and fundraising databases, Goldberg said. Andrews said he wanted someone with extensive experience working with volunteers, which Bellanca had with the Garagiola campaign, as well as someone who understands how to coordinate aspects of a campaign, deliver a message and mobilize voters. Duncan was a Delaney supporter, which is how he got to know Staiger. He said he was impressed by that campaign’s use of technology, including social media and tools for “microtargeting” potential supporters, and decided to bring Staiger on board for his own run. The campaign manager’s job is a crucial one, Duncan said. “The candidate cannot manage their own campaign, and those that try are not successful,” he said. rmarshall@gazette.net