First rule of political campaigning: If you have to tell people that, contrary to appearances, you are in charge of your candidate's message, then you are not in charge of your candidate's message. Now it seems that Farouk Shami's campaign pros have abandoned ship and are quitting after one too many bad news days.

The Austin American Statesman is reporting that Shami's campaign director Vince Leibowitz, his communications director Kelly Love Johnson and spokesman Charlie Ray have all quit (neither Johnson or Leibowitz are picking up the phone.)

Yesterday the press corps was seemingly accidentally cc'ed on an internal campaign exchange in which Shami's paid staff railed against supporters that were issuing their own press releases. "Seriously, can we hunt these people down and muzzle them?" the anonymous staffer fumed.

Actually, aside from the frustration about some Shami supporters, the most telling statement in the original exchange may be that "the staff could probably work with [Shami's] "unique" statements, but these people that think they are helping him are feeding him their stupidity." Those "unique" statements are probably those about 9/11 conspiracy theories, white people not wanting to work in factories, a day without Mexicans being like a day without sunshine, and so on and so forth.

Last night, Leibowitz put out a statement about the people behind the unsanctioned press releases, and clarified who really speaks for Shami.

Neither Jessica Gutierrez nor David Diaz are authorized to speak on behalf of the Farouk Shami campaign. It was not until we were told today by reporters that Jessica Gutierrez was sending press releases on behalf of the campaign that we were aware of this. She was not authorized to do so. Her actions are unprofessional and reflect poorly on the campaign and our senior staff, and we will address them internally. Jessica Gutierrez works in the area of Hispanic Outreach. Mr. Diaz's actions are also unfortunate. Mr. Diaz and Ms. Gutierrez have repeatedly been instructed by myself and other senior staff that they are not part of our communications team and are not authorized spokespersons for the campaign.

Our senior staff and communications team are not in a state of confusion. All legitimate, authorized campaign policies and press releases are online at FaroukForGovernor.com. Any press release not posted there is not authorized. Those staff authorized to speak to the press are myself as campaign director; Kelly Love Johnson, our communications director, and Charlie Ray, our Press Secretary. If Jessica Gutierrez has been included as a contact, it was because she was part of our travel and advance team, and not as a senior member of the communications team or anyone authorized to speak on behalf of the Shami campaign.

That was less than a day ago. Now Leibowitz has abandoned the campaign completely to its own devices.