Obama selects more staff [EMILY's List/AFL-CIO operative named White House Communications Dir.]

Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY’s List, was named White House communications director by President-elect Obama on Saturday.

Moran, a well-known grassroots organizer, has also managed statewide Democratic campaigns and managed the Wal-Mart corporate accountability campaign for the AFL-CIO.

EMILY's List, one of the most important Democratic constituency groups, says it is "dedicated to building a progressive America by electing Democratic pro-choice women to office."

As expected, the White House press secretary will be Robert Gibbs, a top strategist on Obama's campaign who helped chart his leap from the U.S. Senate to the presidency.

Dan Pfeiffer, the campaign communications director, will be deputy director of communications.

Ellen Moran, Director of Communications: Moran currently serves as executive director of EMILY’s List, where she oversees the national staff and charts the overall strategic direction of the organization. This was Moran’s second tenure at EMILY’s List, rejoining the organization from the AFL-CIO, where she coordinated Wal-Mart corporate accountability activities and served in the Political Department. In 2004, she took a leave of absence from the AFL-CIO to direct independent expenditures for the Democratic National Committee, managing placement of presidential advertising and directed television, radio, mail, and phoning efforts in 20 states. In 2000, Moran directed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s $50 million issue advocacy campaign. Moran's political experience includes managing campaigns for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House; working on the national campaign staff of Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign; helping plan both Clinton inaugurals; and conducting international democracy work in Indonesia for the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 1993, Moran designed EMILY’s List’s campaign staff training program and served as its first director. Moran also oversaw EMILY’s List’s first foray into voter mobilization in 1994. A native of Amherst, Massachusetts, Moran holds a degree in political science and English literature from Wheaton College.

Robert Gibbs, Press Secretary: Gibbs, a native of Auburn, Alabama and a graduate of North Carolina State University, began working with President-Elect Obama in April 2004 serving as Communications Director for his United States Senate race and later as his Senate Communications Director. Gibbs held the position of Communications Director for Obama’s presidential campaign until becoming Senior Strategist for Communications and Message during the general election. Earlier in his career, Gibbs served as Communications Director for Senator Fritz Hollings and worked on Senator Debbie Stabenow's 2000 Senate campaign. He also served as press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and worked for Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign. Gibbs lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife, Mary Catherine, and their five-year-old son, Ethan.

Dan Pfeiffer, Deputy Director of Communications: Pfeiffer currently serves as the Communications Director for the Presidential Transition Team. He began on Obama’s presidential campaign in January 2007 as the traveling press secretary before returning to Chicago to manage the press operation as Communications Director. Prior to the Obama campaign, Pfeiffer worked as Senator Evan Bayh’s Communications Director, Senator Tom Daschle’s Deputy Campaign Manager in 2004 and the Communications Director on Senator Tim Johnson's reelection in 2002. He has also worked for the Democratic Governors Association and the Gore-Lieberman campaign.

So while the Illinois GOP always knew Sauerberg would fail, nobody expected him to fail quite so spectacularly.

I did. Sauerberg's vote % probably matched or exceeded the % of people who even knew who he was. When a nobody runs a non-race against a popular incumbent in a bad year for his party, that's what you get. I didn't expect Berry to do as well as he did but I expected Durbin to exceed his %. He got fewer actual votes though I believe because so many fools vote President only.

Koppie should have ran for the GOP nomination.

Well I expected him to get crushed too (every poll showed he was losing by 20+ points), but if talked to virtually every Republican official and voter in the state, they'd all claim we needed to "get behind" Sauerberg because he was within striking distance and could somehow "beat Durbin". Why they assumed this, I don't know, but the numbers show Sauerberg got 1.4 million votes and Koppie (who's far more conservative and far more qualified for the office) got only 23,000. Clearly, most rank-and-file Republicans voted for the RINO instead of the candidate who shared their views because they thought their vote had a chance of unseating Durbin. Instead, all they did is send the GOP a message that it's okay to run more pathetic unqualified RINOs and the party base will rubber stamp them.

The irony here is that the party's 2002 nominee, state Rep. Jim Durkin, is about 5X more conservative than Sauerberg on the issues, but a bunch of conservative activists who whined and moaned about how much they hate Durkin (who's only "bad" position was being a bit weak on second amendment issues) now wanted us to "get behind" empty suit Sauerberg, who was little more than Durbin-lite on the issues. Hmmm.

Some conservatives are their own worse enemy.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.