Republican US Senate hopeful David Malpass has parted ways with Mike DuHaime, former 2008 Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign manager, in an ongoing campaign shake-up that has seen the departure of several staffers.

Malpass spokeswoman Jessica Proud confirmed DuHaime left about two weeks ago, and sent over the following explanation/statement:

“Mike was brought on in the early the stages of the campaign to put the pieces together, assemble the team and get us through the convention. He did so brilliantly and we are enormously grateful for his contributions to the campaign.”

DuHaime, who also worked on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s successfull campaign last fall and is now with Mercury Public Affairs, joined the Malpass campaign back in March as the would-be candidate was gearing up to make a push to get onto the ballot at the state convention.

Malpass managed to get onto the ballot, but didn’t receive sufficient support to become the official designee.

That honor went to Bruce Blakeman. Former Rep. Joe DioGuardi, the Conservative Party’s designee, fell short of the 25 percent mark at the convention, but then successfully petitioned his way onto the ballot, forcing a three-way GOP primary for Row B. The winner will take on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in November.

A source familiar with the Malpass campaign said the official reason given for DuHaime’s departure internally was budgetary (interesting, since the candidate is essentially bankrolling his own campaign, loaning it $2.5 million so far).

Also gone from Team Malpass is another player in Giulianiland, Marco DeSena, who was one of the original members of the campaign – if not the first. He’s now doing some communications work for one of the two GOP candidates in NY-13, Michael Allegretti.

According to Proud, the Malpass campaign also recently switched Website companies, which explains why the site looks different (at least since the last time I was there, but I can’t exactly recall when that was).

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