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Official or not Hillary Clinton builds a massive 2016 team-in-waiting - The Washington Post
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I have no doubt that she is running. She is building a mega-team, and quite early.
At this point, without so much as an announcement, she has settled on — at the least — a campaign chairman, a campaign manager, a chief strategist and lead pollster, another pollster, a lead media adviser, a communication director, a deputy communications director, a focus group director and a communications strategist.
She is also closing in on a New York City campaign headquarters and a date to make all of this official.
Some senior staff are signing on without nailing down the usual conditions of a new job, such as a salary or starting date. Recruitment is being led by White House senior adviser John Podesta and manager-designate Robby Mook, with Clinton making many of the final decisions herself.
Clinton faces no competition for Democratic campaign talent and is said to prefer to wait as long as possible to begin campaigning, but she has assured senior advisers that she would put the legal framework of a campaign in place this spring.
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Jim Messina, who helped engineer Clinton’s downfall in 2008 as a senior aide to Obama’s campaign, now runs a super PAC devoted to supporting her in 2016. “It’s her turn and her time,” he said on MSNBC this week. “We’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure she’s the president of the United States.”
No Republicans now moving toward active candidacies can say that they are as far along in staffing their upper ranks with the kind of experienced people whom Clinton is bringing aboard. She’s also locking in wealthy donors and has a head start on other ground organizing and fundraising because of the efforts of outside groups supporting her.
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Much of the political machinery that helped get Obama elected twice has already swung behind a Clinton candidacy — adding to the feel of quasi-incumbency.
Podesta is advising her unofficially and is expected to become the campaign chairman. He has already announced that he will leave the White House within weeks. White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri is expected to assume the same title for the Clinton campaign in March or April.
Collectively, Clinton’s team represents a break from the past. With few exceptions, none of the new team played the most senior roles in her 2008 campaign, and many worked actively against her as part of the Obama operation. More hiring is underway, filling out press, research, digital, political, field and other departments.
Clinton is revamping her communications and press strategy after a 2008 campaign marked by toxic relations between the campaign and the press. Joel Benenson, an Obama pollster now serving as a chief Clinton adviser, Palmieri and Podesta all have good relationships with reporters.
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I have no doubt that she is running. She is building a mega-team, and quite early.