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 While many of his rivals are concentrating on hiring staff and
renting offices in key states like New Hampshire and Iowa, Carson is
pursuing a more unorthodox campaign, sometimes less visible to the
naked eye, that has fueled his rise to the top of the polls. He is
just behind Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican 2016
presidential nomination.
Helping Carson position himself as the answer to Americans'
frustration with Washington gridlock is Barry Bennett, 52, a
Washington insider, who is running a decidedly non-traditional
campaign to build his client's brand.
Under Bennett's guidance, the campaign enables supporters to connect
with Carson with unusual intimacy: they can get emailed or texted
questions personally answered; or huddle on his Facebook page every
day; and donors can even have their children's names posted on the
campaign's bus.
Carson’s campaign relies heavily on the Internet to get his message
across, more so than the campaigns of his 13 rivals. The campaign’s
Facebook page has more than 4 million followers, while Carson’s
Instagram account has 127,000.
 One popular Facebook feature shows fans holding handwritten
explanations of their support for Carson. Bennett says urging
supporters to take more of those photos was his idea to drive voter
engagement.
Starting this month, the campaign began using a computer program
that lets one staffer answer up to 9,000 questions per day.
Supporters will be able to text or email Carson a question and get
an individual response. The program uses an algorithm that groups
together questions that may look unique but are actually similar
enough to elicit a single answer. Bennett says using the program was
also his idea.
In an interview at Carson's campaign headquarters in Alexandria,
Virginia, Bennett saw no contradiction in a long-time Washington
political operative helping a candidate whose main selling point is
that he has never worked in Washington.
"We both believe Washington needs to be turned upside down," he
said.
He also said he has no problems with some of Carson's more
controversial statements. Carson has faced sharp criticism for
comments suggesting the Holocaust could have been diminished if Jews
had been armed, and that victims of a recent mass shooting in Oregon
should have fought harder against the gunman.
"He doesn't speak in a way that Washington politicians are trained
to speak, so to some people that sounds crazy but to me and most of
America that sounds refreshing," Bennett said.
Indeed polls show that Carson has not been hurt at all by the
comments. In fact, he may even have grown stronger.
AN INSIDER'S STORY
Bennett, who has worked for 30 years as a political operative for
hire, has also helped to mastermind a data-collection operation that
has enabled Carson to tap into an army of small donors and out-raise
his rivals.
 As of Friday, Carson had raised more than $37 million, from 725,000
donors, with the average donation size at $51, according to a tally
provided by Bennett. His nearest Republican fund-raising rivals,
former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Marco Rubio,
had each raised about $25 million by the end of September, according
to Federal Election Commission filings.
Bennett's career began when, as a student, he started doing data
entry for President Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. After working in
the Ohio state legislature, Bennett moved to Washington, where he
worked for the Republican National Committee and Ohio Senator Rob
Portman and founded a media analysis firm. In short, he became a
Washington insider.
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"Who with a 202 (Washington) area code on their cell phone would
even think of working for Carson?" said New Hampshire Republican
strategist Dave Carney.
Carney said most veteran operatives would have balked at what many
see as Carson's moonshot bid for the presidency. He gave Bennett
credit for seeing something in Carson when others didn't.
"He saw an opportunity where most folks would turn their nose up at
it."
Carson has used the opportunity to play with some out-of-the box
ideas, like appealing to supporters for donations in exchange for
having their children's names displayed on a campaign bus. The bus
is now covered with hundreds of little stick figures whose shapes
are filled in with names written in tiny script.
"He's got outsized talents with a moderate-sized ego," said
Republican strategist Matt Schlapp, who knows Bennett. "Usually it's
the other way around."
ROMNEY FILM
Until now, Bennett was probably best known for having produced "When
Mitt Romney Came to Town" during the 2012 Republican primaries, when
he was working as an independent consultant. It was a 28-minute
collection of interviews with people who lost their jobs after
Romney's private equity firm Bain Capital took over their companies.
The film dampened voters' enthusiasm for Romney and forced his
campaign to go into damage control mode, said a former Romney
staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"I wished he was on our side," he said of Bennett.
In 2016, Bennett has been on the other side of political attacks,
defending Carson's controversial statements.
On Carson's comments encouraging people to fight back against
gunmen, Bennett invoked the victims of the al Qaeda-hijacked
airplane Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field on Sept.
11, 2001. Investigators believe the passengers thwarted a planned
attack when they stormed the cockpit and attempted, unsuccessfully,
to regain control of the aircraft.
"That's what you hope you'd do in that situation," Bennett said.
(Reporting By Emily Flitter; Additional reporting by Grant Smith,
editing by Paul Thomasch and Ross Colvin)
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