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Shop Talk: Manchester Bound

Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) has added another finance pro to his Senate campaign. Hodes raised more than $1 million in his first five months in the race, including only $265,000 during his first quarter of the year.

[IMGCAP(1)]Hodes hired Diana Doukas to be his national finance director, based in Manchester. Doukas is a finance consultant for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s (D) 2010 re-election bid, and she served as the political action committee director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2008 cycle.

The campaign also hired Diana Rogalle of the Ashmead Group in March as a national fundraiser for the campaign. According to a source with knowledge of the hiring, Rogalle will stay on as a national finance consultant based in Washington, D.C.

Hodes also hired Jess Clark to be his political director for the campaign. Clark, who will be based in Manchester, was most recently the state director for the New Hampshire AFl-CIO in the 2008 cycle.

In Good Health. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee regional press secretary Jessica Santillo announced last week that she is leaving the committee to be a press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Santillo handled press for Southern state races at the committee and wrote in an e-mail that Oct. 1 was her last day at the DCCC.

A DCCC aide said the committee has not hired Santillo’s successor yet.

Media Match Point. Democratic communications guru Mo Elleithee announced this week he has launched Three Point Media along with Mattis Goldman and Clare Gannon. The newly formed media firm will have offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

“As we’re gearing up for the 2010 cycle, we realized that to win in campaigns, it’s more than just about paid media,— Elleithee said. “The most effective campaigns are the ones who can integrate all their communications, whether it’s paid media or earned media or increasingly new media.—

Elleithee, a longtime communications operative, is serving as a senior adviser to state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D) in the Virginia gubernatorial race. In the previous cycle, he was a senior spokesman for now-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Elleithee is a founding partner at Hilltop Public Solutions, where he said he will continue to offer general consulting services.

The Los Angeles-based Goldman worked on media for several campaigns, including Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) 2006 victory and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen’s (Md.) first bid for Congress in 2002.

Gannon, a former communications director for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s (D) 2004 campaign for president in Iowa, also served as deputy national press secretary at the Democratic National Committee in 2004.

Goldman and Gannon most recently worked for the firm SeeChange Media. They are also veterans of the political media firm formerly known as Doak, Carrier, O’Donnell, Goldman, Gannon and Associates Inc.

Martha, Martha, Martha. Montgomery (Ala.) City Councilwoman Martha Roby (R) announced she has tapped Cory Adair to manage her campaign against freshman Rep. Bobby Bright (D).

Adair spent the past two and a half years working for the Mississippi Republican Party, including most recently as executive director.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has indicated it believes Roby can wage a competitive campaign against Bright, who won with 50 percent of the vote last year.

Roby also tapped Tim Baker of Capitol Strategy Group to be her general consultant, Paul Curcio of SRCP Media to do media and Rob Autry of Public Opinion Strategies to be her pollster.

Ben Mitchell of Political Ink will be Roby’s direct-mail consultant, while Laura Dunaway of Capitol Strategy Group will be her finance consultant. The Townsend Group will serve as Roby’s political action committee fundraising consultant.

Campaign Teams Go-pher It. Minnesota state Senate Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for the right to take on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), has announced her campaign staff. Democrats have indicated that they plan to target Bachmann’s district in 2010, and Clark has already sewn up support with local labor leaders.

Andrea Mokros of Mokros Strategies will be leading Clark’s campaign team. Mokros most recently served as Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) deputy chief of staff and was chief of staff to former White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty at his firm McLarty Associates.

Another former Klobuchar aide, Justin Buoen of the Southpaw Group will head up Clark’s fundraising team. Buoen was the Midwest finance director for former Sen. John Edwards’ (D-N.C.) 2008 presidential campaign, and he served as Klobuchar’s deputy finance director in 2006.

Staff assistant and organizer Nicole Wittig-Geske was the deputy field director for Democrats’ 6th district coordinated campaign in the 2008 cycle.

And according to a source with knowledge of the agreement, Clark tapped Al Quinlan of Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research to be her pollster. Quinlan’s firm has worked for several successful Gopher State candidates, including Klobuchar and former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Physician Maureen Reed (D), who is competing with Clark for the Democratic nomination, also announced her campaign team, including Jason Isaacson as her campaign manager. According to a press release from the campaign, Isaacson worked as a field consultant and organizer on many campaigns in Minnesota, including that of former Rep. Bill Luther (D-Minn.).

Field Director Emma Olson, field organizer and researcher Brett Dornfield and Communications Coordinator Trevor Willett, a former staffer on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s political desk, have also signed on to Reed’s bid.

The Reed campaign also reports that it is in a “working relationship— with Lake Research Partners to do its polling and Sandberg Communications for communications strategy. The campaign will announce its media consultant at a later date.

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