Farouk Shami's campaign staffers quit

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Already facing numerous obstacles in building a political image, Farouk Shami got another blow on Wednesday when five members of his campaign staff resigned.

The resignations came after an e-mail from one of the campaign managers was accidentally sent to members of the media. The blistering e-mail questions a press release that was sent out by another member of Shami's staff, David Diaz.

"Who in the hell is David Diaz?" reads the first line of the e-mail sent from Shami's generic "Press team" e-mail address. "He is not authorized by the campaign to send out any press releases and we keep seeing them out there, apparently "authorized" by Jessica Gutierrez? Isn't she Farouk's public relations rep for his company? Why are these amateurs with aol.com email addresses sending out these awful statements?"

The press release Diaz had sent out accused Bill White of racial profiling. When Shami defended Diaz's actions, saying he was a paid staffer and had the authority to send out press releases, Shami's press secretary and four other members of his team resigned.

"Staying on message is very important in a political campaign and managing that message," said the press secretary who resigned, Charlie Ray. "And, when realizing that you don’t have full control over that message then you sort of have to make a decision about what’s the best course of action."

Campaign director Vince Leibowitz and another PR manager also resigned.

"We were not aware that those press releases were sent," said Ray. "And, upon discovering those it became clear that there was a strategic difference in the communication strategy between the staffers."

Shami's office has not yet responded to the resignations.

Read the full e-mail:

Who in the hell is David Diaz? He is not authorized by the campaign to send out any press releases and we keep seeing them out there, apparently "authorized" by Jessica Gutierrez? Isn't she Farouk's public relations rep for his company? Why are these amateurs with aol.com email addresses sending out these awful statements? These are the same people that give him quotes like great one about Mexicans and sunshine. No one with the campaign has authorized these statements and whoever they are, they are sabotaging every bit of legitimacy Farouk has as a candidate.

We have a communications director, a press secretary, and a policy/strategy team for the campaign. The entire paid staff has worked very hard on strategy for this candidate and have been chopped off at the knees by these incompetents! The staff could probably work with his "unique" statements, but these people that think they are helping him are feeding him their stupidity. Seriously, can we hunt these people down and muzzle them? This is highly unprofessional and must be resolved immediately.