With only 60 days to go until Election Day, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Inez Tenenbaum has fired her advertising consultant, the second top adviser she has dismissed in a month.

Her opponent, U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., immediately pointed to the move as further evidence that Tenenbaum’s campaign is faltering.

Political observers agreed firing another key campaign staffer doesn’t look good for Tenenbaum. But, they added, it would have been worse if she had waited to act.

“The usual rule is if you’re going to fire any principals, do it before Labor Day,” when campaigns traditionally start, said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “She just barely made it.”

The campaign would not say specifically why Tenenbaum had parted ways with Bill Carrick, an Aiken native and friend.

The move follows weeks in which voters and observers criticized Tenenbaum’s ads as bland and her strategy as ineffective.

“She had the opportunity to bring in a different team that has a strong record of electing moderate Democrats in conservative states, and she feels positive about this change,” Tenenbaum spokesman Adam Kovacevich said.

Carrick said Tenenbaum told him earlier this week that she wanted to make a change.

“It’s a bad episode of ‘Survivor,’ where I got kicked off the island,” said Carrick, whose clients have included U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Alex Sanders.

Tenenbaum fired her campaign manager, Carol Butler, in July. Tenenbaum said her campaign needed new leadership.

Both moves are a sign Tenenbaum felt she needed to jump-start her campaign, experts said.

Earlier this week, DeMint released results from his own campaign polls showing him far ahead. He also told The State that President Bush was unlikely to visit South Carolina to help him because national Republicans considered him a lock to win.

“I don’t blame her,” DeMint campaign manager Terry Sullivan said. “If I were down 13 points, I’d fire my campaign staff too.”

In Carrick’s place, Tenenbaum has hired David Dixon of Dixon/Davis Media of Washington, D.C., considered by some to be a rising Democratic star.

“David Dixon rocks,” said Jay Reiff, who has worked with Dixon and is campaign manager for N.C. Gov. Mike Easley. “He’s young, aggressive, smart and funny.”

Increasingly, TV ads are one of the most important ways a candidate communicates with voters.

Tenenbaum was hit hard in July by an ad paid for by Americans for Job Security, an independent, GOP-leaning group. The ad said Tenenbaum had called for a tax increase and spent exorbitantly on catered meals and travel as S.C. schools superintendent.

Tenenbaum, who protested the claims were inaccurate, responded with a commercial in which she looked into the camera and, instead of addressing the specific attacks, said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of untrue political attack ads.”

That was followed by two Tenenbaum campaign ads describing her parents and talking about her commitment to veterans. In one, Tenenbaum stumbles slightly over her script.

“These ads were not on par with ads being produced by the DeMint campaign,” said Jamie McKown, who teaches political communication at the College of Charleston.

DeMint caused a buzz with his ads during his GOP runoff against former Gov. David Beasley. Two were particularly effective — one featuring two old men arguing whether Beasley was “wishy-washy” or a “flip-flopper” and another with DeMint’s daughters.

Both used soft light and carefully selected shots to inspire emotion.

By comparison, Tenenbaum’s ads created little emotion in viewers, said McKown, who is studying campaign ads from across the country this election season.

“I think there were some Democrats who were surprised that the initial Inez ads were that poor in quality,” he said.

That might have led to pressure from donors or supporters for Tenenbaum to fix her campaign’s problems, McKown said.

He and other experts say it’s probably not too late for Tenenbaum to turn the race around.

“Voters in November will be much more concerned with the ads they are seeing then than that Inez Tenenbaum hired a new ad consultant in September,” Virginia’s Sabato said.

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com