Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Lippman.
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When the president BARACK OBAMA took office in 2009, he and his team took a close look at the Democratic National Committee, seeing it as part of the establishment they had just defeated and full of HILLARY CLINTON sympathizers.
Instead of working through the committee, they decided to set up one of their own. The result was the political organization Organizing for America (OFA), which played a tremendous role in organizing around the 2010 midterm elections and, later, the 2012 re-election.
President JOE BIDEN has taken a markedly different approach with both the DNC and its outside group, Building Back Together (BBT).
Under his watch, the DNC, not the BBT, has taken the lead role in political organizing and — still hypothetically — redistricting conversations, people familiar with the inner workings told West Wing Playbook. This has removed any possible uncertainty about how the party infrastructure would be set up. If Biden decides to run for re-election and has a primary challenge, the DNC executive director SAM CORNALE told us: “We are with Biden. Period.”
When OFA started, it was under the belief that the Obama movement was about the candidate, not the party. Obama modeled himself as an insurgent running against the party establishment who had a cult following beyond the DNC (after all he chose “renegade” as his Secret Service code name). OFA, in turn, focused its resources on organizing on the ground — Obama’s pride and joy — which many DNC members felt was duplicitous.
Biden is a product e and ran as a party candidate, and the BBT reflects this. The group does not have an on-the-ground program and has instead focused on rallying the progressive diaspora and spending over $35 million on advocacy ads promoting Biden’s legislative agenda.
“It’s so clear that everyone created an organization that reflects who they are,” said a Democratic strategist working on the 2022 race. The strategist was skeptical that BBT has made a big difference, but said it’s a net positive. “Unlike the Organization for America, it has not harmed the Democratic Party,” the person said.
ADDISU DEMISSIEMKO’s national political director from 2009-10 and now an adviser to the BBT also admitted that “some corrections both in concept and execution” have been made based on the experiences of 2009.
“We knew we wanted to be separate from the DNC compared to how OFA was, and the main functions would be advertising and coordination,” he said. “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. It’s more important that everyone drives in the same direction.”
Many progressive organizations agree that the BBT has been useful in coordinating the sometimes powerless array of progressive advocacy groups that focus on labor, climate, health care, welfare, jobs, the economy, racial justice, immigration — and more. . There was an ongoing “war room” call with those stakeholders every day until the final passage of a major reconciliation package that participants said helped keep Democrats in the fold, though some Democratic operatives have complained that the sessions did not deliver a good overview for the White House. messaging or strategic thinking. The calls continue, just with less frequency.
“I think they created a safe space for sharing information, for collaboration,” he said LORI bullets, executive director of the advocacy group Climate Power who also worked at SEIU in 2009-10. “It was much more about ‘what is our added value?’ versus dictating the direction things would go.”
$35 million more in pro-Biden ads is certainly not the biggest investment this cycle. But it helped promote the president’s agenda AND it had the side benefit of booking through firms and consultants that had previously worked with Biden, such as Blue Sky Strategy, 4C Partners and 50+1 Strategies. The DNC has also been happier. He says he’s raised $255 million this cycle — a record at this point in a midterm election cycle.
It is still unclear what role the BBT will play in 2023 and 2024, although officials say it will continue beyond the midterms.
Given that it’s registered as a nonprofit, the group isn’t required to disclose its donors, and didn’t disclose them when West Wing Playbook asked (they’ve previously said they wouldn’t). Even with such transparency issues – or, perhaps, because of them – BBT advisers are confident that the group will not be the last of its kind.
As Demissie said: “Whoever is the next Democratic president is going to need his BBT, too.”
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INVITE US – Are you ALICIA O’BRIEN, Senior Counselor and Special Assistant to the President? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous if you want. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we can include it tomorrow. Email us at [email protected].
This is from the Independent reporter ANDREW FEINBERG. DONALD TRUMP is not the first former chief executive to spend the presidency living in a hotel. Who are the other two?
(Answer at the end.)
A CASE OF REBOUND: The White House said the first lady JILL BIDEN tested positive for Covid-19 after taking an antigen test on Wednesday. It had tested negative on Tuesday. Biden first tested positive for Covid-19 on August 15 and took the antiviral drug Paxlovid, which can sometimes cause “rebound” cases. She remains in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and is not experiencing symptoms, according to the White House. POTUS tested negative on Wednesday.
STUDENT DEBT DETAILS REVEALED: After months of discussion and procrastination, the president announced Wednesday that he will forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for millions and up to $20,000 in student debt for those who previously received a Pell grant.
The relief applies to those earning less than $125,000 a year or households earning less than $250,000. The administration will also extend the pause on student loan payments until Dec. 31. our MICHAEL STRATFORD AND EUGENE DANIELS they have more planned.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WILL READ: These figures from the deputy director of the National Economic Council BHARAT RAMAMURTI that show a split in support among voters for student debt relief:
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE not I WANT YOU TO READ: This Twitter thread by JASON FURMANformer head of the Council of Economic Advisers for Obama and critic of the Biden case, on the president’s plan for student debt relief.
“Pouring nearly half a trillion dollars of gasoline on an already smoldering inflationary fire is reckless,” he wrote. “Doing it by going beyond one campaign promise ($10,000 in student loan relief) and breaking another (all paid proposals) is even worse.” You can read the full thread—and, folks, it’s gross—here.
JOB OPENING, CHIEF GOVERNMENT NERD: The president has yet to name a permanent leader at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a small but powerful agency that manages the administration of hundreds of federal regulations each year. But people tell us ADAM CANCRYN he is approaching the election.
The office would shape the final two years of Biden’s term — especially if Democrats lose full control of Congress after the midterm elections and the administration turns to regulatory action to get things moving. Some of the possible candidates include environmental law expert RICHARD REVESZ. Vanderbilt University law professor and Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN ally GANESH SITARAMAN was under consideration, but the White House wasn’t sure he could get Senate confirmation.
ON OTHER PERSONNEL MATTERS … CHRIS DÍAZ is now chief of staff to the secretary of the Navy. He was most recently deputy chief of staff and White House liaison to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
THE FIGHT AGAINST THE MONKEY POLL IS STILL NOT WELL: The administration’s handling of the monkeypox vaccine distribution is, once again, drawing criticism. It was understood that each bottle of vaccine that was declared would contain five doses of the vaccine. But health officials told us MEGAN MESSERLY AND KRISTA MAHR that they were only able to get three or four doses from each bottle, vaccinating fewer people than expected as outbreaks continue across the country.
THINKING LONG TERM: Biden on Wednesday announced a new $2.98 billion security aid package for Ukraine, signaling the administration’s shift toward a long-term strategy to help the country as the Russian invasion reaches its six-month mark. KELLY HOOPER, ALEXANDER WARD AND LARA SELIGMAN report.
‘Ghost guns’ must now be tracked as Biden rule takes effect (WaPo’s Mark Berman)
US says it hit bunkers used by Iran-backed forces in Syria (NYT’s John Ismay)
US and Iran move closer to nuclear deal, but high hurdles remain (AP’s Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani)
Biden administration moves to formalize DACA and protect it from legal challenges (CBS News Camilo Montoya-Galvez)
AND CLUTCHEY is not Biden’s senior presidential writer for nothing.
When he spoke at his college’s commencement ceremony in 2008, he began by “randomly” reading lines from a speech by the then-president of Amherst College. ANTHONY W. MARX.
“Two millennia ago, in the ancient land of Rome, mighty Kronos cast his plebiscite on—oh. Excuse me, wait,” he said. “I think we may have exchanged speeches, President Marks. I apologize for that. I found mine, mine is here – so I’m going to do mine now.”
He’s got jokes, people.
HERBERT HOOVER AND DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER lived at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel after their presidencies.
According to the New York Times: “When the Waldorf opened in its current location in 1931, after moving from Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street, President Hoover delivered a congratulatory message live on the radio from the White House.
“He moved in 1933 to a suite on the 34th floor of the Waldorf Towers, where he lived until his death there in 1964. Eisenhower also lived there (on the seventh floor; his wife, Mamie, feared from the heights), from 1967 until he died two years later.”
A CALL – Thanks Andrew for the question. Have a more difficult question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a quote and we might feature it.
Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.
