I wish I could be more eloquent , but I am not good enough to get my point of view across to all that disagreed with me.
I'm not the most eloquent either, but maybe I can explain what I understood from your words.
You say that it could be a conflict of interest, because the manager could use his ability to give merits to a certain user to increase his ranking and thus be able to participate in the campaign or have a higher level of payment. Doing so can provide one user with advantages over another.
For example: imagine that I was still a Hero, and a manager wanted me to participate in a campaign that only accepts Legendary. I need 50 merits to level up. The manager being a source of merit, would give me these merits to raise my level, and so I could participate in the campaign.
Was this your idea @philipma1957?
Yes.
And it gives an extra level of power and control to a campaign manager.
A} he or she can pick and choose anyone he wants to be in the campaign = true.
B} he or she can get rid of anyone he wants to get rid of = true.
C} he can ask the person to be sure to post in certain sections for credit = true.
D} with source merits he can boost a person to earn more = not true for icopress as I think is is not a source.
I think no source should be a campaign manager. It has been claimed a source already is a campaign manager there was a post that said this. If true It is a conflict of interest and that person should surrender his source for the good of bitcointalk.