It does not matter if you are a signature campaign manager or a sole escrow provider. If you are holding someone else money, it's your responsibility. You can not make an excuse. If you lose the money then loan from bank and repay but you have to repay. If you do not have the back up money to repay then you should not hold someone else money before anything else.
Exactly!
Reputation and trust is not enough to start offering escrow services and what happened to julerz is just an example why it's not. If you are going to escrow a deal then you need to have enough money in reserve to cover the escrowed amount and repay the affected party in case things go wrong.
A camapain manager doesn't necessary need to escrow the campaign funds. He can hire someone else for that job.