Former Our Revolution staffers emphasize that they don’t fault Sanders for the way the organization has been managed. (Sanders has clarified that he will not be controlling or directing the organization.) Instead, many staffers who resigned blame Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s former campaign manager who was recently brought in to run Our Revolution, for the decision to operate the organization as a 501(c)(4).

The set-up appears to have caused organizational challenges and legal headaches. According to former volunteer engagement manager Ceci Hall, since Our Revolution wasn’t able to coordinate voter contact efforts with the campaign, a task that involved directing volunteers to call voters and encourage them to support the Canova campaign and get out to vote, some voters ended up receiving calls from both the campaign and Our Revolution.

At one point, according to Hall, the Canova campaign even notified Our Revolution that people had started to complain that they were receiving what amounted to duplicate calls, and requested that the organization stop its calls. Our Revolution decided to stop phone banking as a result. “That was really frustrating,” she said. “We were trying, but our help wasn't as effective as it could have been because we weren't able to coordinate directly.” When asked if his campaign notified Our Revolution to let them know that there were duplicate calls, and asked them to stop, Canova said in an e-mail: “Yes, I believe we contacted Our Rev[olution] about the duplicate calls and got them to stop.”

It’s possible that in an attempt to avoid coordination, the campaign and Our Revolution actually ended up violating campaign finance law. “I think this is evidence of coordination,” Larry Noble, the general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, said after hearing that description of events. Noble noted that “it’s a bit trickier” to judge whether an agreement not to do something would count as coordination, but added “at the very least, the information justifies an investigation into what was actually said.”

“I don’t believe any rules were violated at this point,” Jeff Weaver said in an interview, though he noted that he “can’t attest to anything they did or didn’t do before I came on board here.” Weaver said one reason he had been brought in to help manage the organization was “to make sure things were done completely by the books here,” saying “there was less appreciation of that by people who were then here, who are no longer here.”

“As far as I know, any discussions that anyone in my campaign had with anyone in Senator Sanders’ campaign occurred before anyone was informed that there was a new entity with a 501(c)(4) status by the name of Our Revolution,” Canova said in an e-mail.

Legal scrutiny and controversy over mass resignations at the organization overshadowed its public launch last week. It looks like the growing pains aren’t over yet.