Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced Friday his long-time adviser Antigone Davis will take over his campaign for governor as he adds staff to his political team.
Davis, an attorney who ran Gansler's two previous campaigns for attorney general, is the third person to take over the campaign manager in Gansler's bid for governor.
In an email to supporters, Gansler described Davis as a campaign veteran and said "Antigone knows campaigns; she understands government; and she knows Maryland."
Davis replaces Mathew "Mudcat" Arnold, who joined the campaign this summer to replace Gansler's first campaign manager. Along with a change at the top, Gansler announced a new political strategist, a new political researcher, a new policy aide and a press secretary.
The changes come with about six-and-a-half months left until the June 24 primary and after the two-term Democrat's campaign for governor hit a rocky patch earlier this year.
Gansler held a nationally televised press conference in October to explain himself after The Baltimore Sun published a photo of him at a Beach Week party where teens later said there was underage drinking and Gansler initially said he had no "moral authority" to stop it. That episode followed reports by The Washington Post that state troopers complained about Gansler's backseat driving and revealed secretly taped remarks by Gansler that his chief rival, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, was relying on his racial heritage to attract votes.
In recent weeks, Gansler has attacked Brown over the botched rollout of the Maryland health insurance exchange and released a series of web videos pitching his ideas directly to voters. Gansler also unsuccessfully pushed his fellow candidates to pledge to keep third-party spending out of the race for governor.
Gansler said in the email to supports the campaign has "made exciting progress over the past month."