UPDATED: McCaskill replacing Dean as DNC chair?
McCaskill, left, and Dean
The Huffington Post has an intriguing report this morning which says that U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is the front runner to be the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
She would replace former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who is stepping down in January.
According to the report, the plan would call for McCaskill to be the public face of the party, but for Democratic president-elect Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, to be the “operational chair” (in other words, handle the day-to-day stuff).
UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.:
McCaskill spokeswoman Maria Speiser played down the speculation. “It’s all just a rumor. We’re not sure who started it,” Speiser said. “Claire has not had any conversation with the Obama team about the position, or with the president-elect Obama himself.”
Speiser emphasized that McCaskill earlier has made it clear, even before the election, that she had no plans to quit her Senate seat for a Cabinet position. “She’s pretty happy being a senator and representing Missouri,” Speiser said.
She wouldn’t be leaving the Senate would she? This would be ceremonial?
Correct. She would remain in her Senate seat; the speculation is that McCaskill would be the co-chair, allowing someone else to handle the day-to-day stuff. The HuffPost article is merely speculative about this, however. She’s a national co-chair of President-elect Obama’s campaign; and the article points out that his folks are a somewhat insular bunch. So, yes, McCaskill would make sense.
I think claire would make an excellent choice to be the figurehead of the party.
however, dems should keep Jeff Smith from any kind of power after managing to lose seats in the missouri senate during democratic year. i think he could have managed, if given the opportunity, to blow this election for obama even though it was clear that the people are tired of republican policies.
Does anyone in that party (that’s electable) have any experience?
Just wondering..
This move is fine with me, but when is Howard Dean going to get credit for what he did to win this Presidential election? He was the one person who convinced the Democratic Party to make the 2008 election a 50 state race. After the loses of 2000 and 2004, Dean pressured the leaders of the party to campaign in every state, thus making the Republicans spend precious little money to counteract the strategy of the Democratic Party. And it worked. And he deserves the credit. Jim Paunovich
Jeff Smith Can’t be blamed for the small decrease in Democratic seats in the state senate. The MDP website doesn’t even mention him with the MSDCC. It may have been a “blue” year nationwide, but as “Nice” is surely aware, Missouri hates going with trends. We voted for McCain by around 6000 votes, yet more counties went for Obama than did for Kerry in 2004. We overwhelmingly voted for Nixon for governor, but kept Republicans in power in the state legislature. Most of these races were regional, and to be frank, I don’t think Senator Smith has the clout to make South County residents elect a Republican for the first time in four years by 96 votes. That’s right, 96 votes.
Regardless, Jeff Smith is an excellent state senator. I experienced a lot of difficulty with voting absentee this year. I contacted Senator Smith, and within two days, my situation was resolved. Residents of Smith’s district should be nothing but proud of their senator.
But can she say Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeyaaaaaaaaaaaa?
Mark, let’s be clear…the margin is now at 119 if you are going to throw numbers around as fact.
Let’s also be clear that three seats of 34 possible seats, is not a small number especially when democratic incumbents lost their seats. this was a democratic year and there should have been a pick up in seats. if you look at the state, especially where dems lost seats, they should have been easy wins for democrats. when i say this i’m thinking of barry’s seat and chuck graham’s set.
we can also not let jeff smith’s performance as a legislator confuse his performance as chair of the MSDCC. he may be a good legislator, if you think that becoming a proponent of vouchers after campaigning that you are the champion of public eduction is good. however, he is not fit to lead the MSDCC as seen by his performance of late. he took things for granted and did not see the whole picture and invest money wisely. pretty good, senator.
Just curious if Claire ever has any plans to be the senator from Missouri?
Will be interesting to see if Missouri retains her in four years.
great another do nothing washington type trying to do more. why can’t she just fix the mess she helped create.