Bush Cuts Campaign Payroll Amid ‘Aggressive’ Restructuring

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is taking “aggressive” steps Friday to restructure his lagging presidential effort, campaign officials said.

Bush’s campaign will cut payroll costs by 40% beginning this week, slashing staff salaries and eliminating positions at the campaign’s headquarters in Miami, top aides wrote in a memo. Many of those positions will be shifted at lower salaries to the early voting states and stated with signature requirements for ballot access, but an as-yet-to-be-determined number of campaign staffers will be let go, the campaign said.

The move comes as Bush has seen his poll numbers collapse nationally and in the early presidential voting states, and just days before Bush is set to meet with many of the campaign’s top donors at a retreat in Houston.

In recent weeks, Bush backers have been raising the alarm that his campaign is flailing and too top-heavy. Many are worried that his message has fallen flat with voters who have been taken by the rise of outsider candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and see the rise of the younger, more dynamic Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as posing an existential threat to Bush’s candidacy. Friday’s moves, announced on an internal campaign conference call led by Bush’s team, appeared aimed and addressing those concerns.

Through Friday, 75% of the Bush campaign’s staff was based at headquarters, with 25% in the states. Under the new formula, only 25% of the existing staff will remain in Miami, with the reductions coming from all departments. The campaign will also cut travel costs by 20%, while cutting 45% of its overhead costs. A campaign aide said there was no change to the campaign’s planned television ad buys or any negative change to early states other than the across-the board-salary cuts.

A “particular emphasis” is being placed on shifting staff to New Hampshire, the aide said, while moving staffers to collect signatures in states like Virginia and Illinois will save the campaign money by eliminating hiring signature firms. Some fundraising consultants will be shifted off payroll into commission positions, while others will be eliminated entirely.

“We needed to make a decision while we still had the resources to make a move like this from a strong position,” the aide said.

Read More: What’s Eating Jeb Bush?

The reductions are the second round of pay cuts, after many departments and top- and mid-level staffers saw their pay reduced in recent months.

“We will take every single step necessary to ensure Jeb is the Republican nominee and next President of the United States,” the campaign wrote in a memo. “We are unapologetic about adjusting our game plan to meet the evolving dynamics of this race to ensure that outcome.”

The campaign spent $1.9 million on salaries in the last quarter, but the campaign estimates the savings of the restructuring will save $1 million per month in costs. Bush reported last week that his campaign raised $13 million in the third quarter of 2015, but was swiftly burning through cash with $10 million in the bank. The moves were first reported by Bloomberg.

Bush will refocus his time away from fundraising, which he has done at a furious pace, to spending more time in retail settings with voters, particularly in New Hampshire and South Carolina—states the campaign see as more ripe ground for victory than Iowa.

The decision to restructure the campaign was made in the last week after the campaign had “full information” by evaluating its financial position at the end of the quarter, in comparison to its rivals for the nomination. Many of Bush’s rivals have boasted of running “lean” campaigns in contrast to Bush.

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See Jeb Bush's Life in Photos

Jeb Bush Life in Photos
George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, Jan. 1, 1955.Sygma/Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
From left to right: Doro, Marvin, Neil, and Jeb Bush, fall 1963.George Bush Presidential Library
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
From left to right: Doro, George, Jeb, Marvin, George W., Neil, and Barbara Bush, 1966.George Bush Presidential Library
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Jeb Bush (center) was the varsity tennis team captain during his senior year at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., 1971. Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
George Bush and his four sons, Neil, Jeb, George W. and Marvin in 1970. Bob E. Daemmrich—Sygma/Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Jeb and Columba Bush on their wedding day, Feb. 23, 1974.George Bush Presidential Library
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Jeb Bush loudly applauds his father, Republican presidential hopeful George Bush, at a campaign rally in Concord, N.H. on Feb. 28, 1980.Frank Lorenzo—Bettmann/Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Vice President George Bush holds a fish with his sons George W. and Jeb during a family vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine in Aug. 1983.Cynthia Johnson—Getty Images
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
From left to right (without children): Neil and Sharon Bush, George W. Bush and wife Laura, Barbara and George Bush, Margaret and Marvin, Bobby Koch and Dorothy, Jeb and Columba, are seen in this Bush family photo taken in Kennebunkport, Maine on Aug. 24, 1986.Dave Valdez—White House/Sygma/Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Jeb Bush plays cards with his son while riding in a recreational vehicle, Nov. 8, 1993.Christopher Little—Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Jeb Bush is interviewed at a Miami Radio Station, WIOD, Mar. 1980. He went on to become Governor of Florida in 1999.Tim Chapman—Getty Images
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
George W. Bush and Jeb Bush at the Republican Governors' Convention in New Orleans, 1998. Nina Berman—SIPA
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Texas governor George W. Bush celebrates good news with his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, while watching the presidential election returns, prior to being elected as President of the United States, inside the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Nov. 7, 2000. Brooks Kraft—Sygma/Corbis
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, studies his laptop watching vote returns for his reelection his wife Columba Bush and his parents, former President George Bush and first lady Barbara Bush in Miami on Nov. 5, 2002.Joe Burbank—Orlando Sentinel/MCT/Getty Images
Jeb Bush Life in Photos
Republican nominee for President, Mitt Romney, campaigns around Florida with Governor Jeb Bush, left, Senator Marco Rubio, right, and Congressman Connie Mack, left back of head, in Coral Gables, Fla. on Oct., 31, 2012. Melina Mara—The Washington Post/Getty Images
Jeb Bush speaks at CPAC in National Harbor, Md. on Feb. 27, 2015.
Jeb Bush speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md. on Feb. 27, 2015.Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME

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