Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has hired former Newt Gingrich fundraiser Amy Pass to be his national finance director. Pass, according to longtime Carson pal Terry Giles, who is running the show for his friend behind the scenes, helped raise over $52 million for Gingrich’s group American Solutions and went on to serve as the national finance director of his 2012 presidential campaign.

“While I believe Dr. Carson will be second to none in grassroots fund raising, we are by no means willing to surrender to anyone regarding traditional approaches,” Giles told National Review Online in an email on Tuesday. He said that Pass, along with a yet-to-be-named national finance chairman, would be “capable of building a team that will surprise many people.”

Pass is the third major hire for Carson’s nascent political operation. He announced last week that he had retained Mike Murray, the president and chairman of the media firm TMA Direct, as a senior adviser, and last month he brought on tea-party operative Ryan Rhodes to run his operation in Iowa.

We reported on Carson world back in January, and it looks like little has changed.