‘I Said The Campaign Needed Energy, Not a Secretary of Energy’ (UPDATED with Details From Team Fred)

Shakeup in Fredland. The new campaign manager is… former senator and energy secretary Spencer Abraham.

Also taking a major role is Randy Enright, who has served in the past as executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa and the Republican Party of Florida. That’s a nice couple of lines to have on a resume when you’re looking for a campaign job. More:

Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett said acting campaign manager Tom Collamore, former vice president of food and tobacco giant Altria, still will advise the campaign. Collamore has helped organize the campaign for Thompson, who has not officially jumped into the race.

UPDATE: Talked to one of the Thompson Associates. I asked about the CNN report that Collamore departed after clashing with Thompson’s wife Jeri. This associate discouraged that line of thought.
“Spencer has been around this campaign from the beginning. He and Fred Thompson are close friends, they’ve been close since their Senate days. He flew out at his own expense to attend the Orange County speech. These changes are, in large part, a reflection of the growth of the campaign…”
“You might say we’re going through some growing pains. Tom [Collamore] was an operations guy, more of a chief operations officer, not so much a political guy, or a campaign guy, and we’re moving past the operations phase. We have office space, we have communications pros, we have fundraising pros, we have our senior strategy team in place.”
Fred Thompson will be speaking to the American Legislative Exchange Council at the end of the week. He appears with Sean Hannity at an event in San Diego Thursday. Beyond that, his media appearances are limited to local radio.