Bachmann’s former New Hampshire team issues statement

Former staffers of Rep. Michele Bachmann's New Hampshire campaign have issued a joint statement to clarify reports surrounding their resignation, indicating that there was bad blood between members of the state staff and Bachmann's national team.

Those team members include Jeff Chidester, Bachmann's New Hampshire campaign manager, Nicole Yurek, Mattheu LeDuc, Caroline Gigler, and Tom Lukacz.

The five-person group's decision to disband came after "much soul-searching by each individual and after countless hours of discussion as a team," the statement reads. "Although the team members regret our departure from the campaign, we know there was very little choice."

The team said that even though they "collectively felt loyalty to the candidate, they no longer have faith in the national team," a view they shared with Bachmann's national staff on several occasions but that they feel was "not taken seriously by some members of the national team."

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The staffers say that they were regularly ignored by the national team and not included in strategy discussions.

The statement says that the national team's attitude toward the New Hampshire staff extended to the voters of New Hampshire as well:

"The manner in which some in the national team conducted themselves towards Team-NH was rude,unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel. But more concerning was how abrasive, discourteous, and dismissive some within the national team were towards many New Hampshire citizens. These are our neighbors and our friends, and some within the national team treated them more as a nuisance than as potential supporters."

Members of the team were asked to temporarily go off the payroll until the middle of October, 2011 due to financial concerns within the campaign, according to the statement.

Read the entire new release here.