Kerry reportedly stole a winning plan from Howard Dean’s playbook by raising a lot of this windfall through online contributions. Now that he has a nice war chest to work with, Kerry’s campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said that they plan to increase their television advertising. 

But who will be handling the new advertising campaigns? Not Jim Margolis, who has worked for the campaign for the past two years. Margolis issued a statement that said he and his firm GMMB will no longer be the creative force behind the Kerry ad campaigns. He said his departure was based on unacceptable "contract changes" that were proposed--in other words, money.  His firm will still be involved with purchasing media time for the campaign but will not be involved in the creation of ads. 

"Unquestionably, being a part of Senator Kerry's presidential campaign has been one of the most important efforts our firm has ever undertaken," Margolis said in his statement. "The stakes couldn't be higher for our country and we have been honored to help produce the spots and assist in developing the strategy that helped him secure the Democratic nomination." 

Kerry still has advisor Bob Shrum to fall back on and there is speculation that Shrum may have had something to do with the “proposed contract changes”.  There was reported a rift between Shrum and Margolis over money--with both men grabbing for a piece of the millions that will be spent on media during the campaign. Thus far Margolis’ firm had handled the lion share of the $10.5 million the Kerry campaign has spent on advertising from it’s inception through February of this year.  

As for the windfall of money that has come to the Kerry campaign, he is still far behind President Bush, who has raised $180 million for his reelection bid. 
 

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