Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney candidate Jason Pelt recently experienced a Newt Gingrich-style exodus of top campaign aides. He said it was due to an imbalance between his home and political lives.

Campaign manager Heather Stefl and adviser Danielle Davis both left Pelt’s campaign. Neither of them was willing to talk about the specifics that led to their departures.

“They’re great individuals and I love them to death,” Pelt said. “I have no hard feelings against Danielle or Heather.”

Pelt’s wife, Tracee, is now his campaign manager.

He said that family commitments to his wife and four children just did not allow the time to run a campaign the way his former advisers wanted him to. Pelt, a defense attorney in Stafford, is heading toward an Aug. 23 primary against longtime Deputy Commonwealth’s Attornety Eric Olsen. Both are seeking the Republican nomination for the general election in November.

Pelt is still hopeful that he can prevail in August and said that he would have won the campaign under the guidance of Stefl and Davis.

“But I would have been hiring a divorce attorney,” he said.