There was a seemingly innocuous piece on Politico the other day. I saw it, and kept going, but my mind kept wandering back to it. It was titled, “Obama moves DNC operations to Chicago.”
In a major shakeup at the Democratic National Committee — and a departure from tradition — large parts of the committee’s operations are relocating to Chicago to be fully integrated with the Obama campaign.
The DNC’s political department, housed in Washington, D.C., will be dramatically rebuilt, with staffers offered a choice of moving to Chicago, joining state operations, or staying in Washington, DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
But the power will clearly be shifting to a centralized Chicago hub.
The DNC’s key role in coordinating political operations with state parties is expected to largely be taken over and overseen by Obama’s senior staff in Chicago, state party officials said.
I realize that the nominee, as the head of the party, gets to call the shots at the DNC. And the inside baseball angle of staffers being ticked off at losing their jobs is news in and of itself. But the breadth, depth, and wholesale nature of the takeover of the party apparatus seems extreme. DNC staffers who don’t move to Chicago are gone. Those that make the move will answer directly to Obama’s hand picked generals. No discussion. No dissension. Read the rest of this entry »
