“It was much more about ‘what is our value add?’ versus dictating the direction things would go.” “I think they created a safe space for information sharing, for collaboration,” said LORI LODES, the executive director of the advocacy group Climate Power who also worked at the SEIU in 2009-10. The calls continue, just with less frequency. There was a standing “war room” call with those stakeholders every day until the recent passage of the large reconciliation package that participants said helped keep Democrats in array, though some Democratic operatives have complained that the sessions didn’t give good insight into White House messaging or strategic thinking. Many progressive organizations agree that BBT has been useful in coordinating the occasionally unwieldy assortment of progressive advocacy groups who focus on labor, climate, health care, care, jobs, the economy, racial justice, immigration - and more. It’s more important getting everyone to row in the same direction.” “We knew we wanted to be separate from the DNC as opposed to how OFA was and the core functions were going to be ads and coordination,” he said. “Unlike Organizing for America, it hasn’t hurt the Democratic Party,” the person said.ĪDDISU DEMISSIE, OFA’s national political director from 2009-10 and now an advisor for BBT likewise conceded that “some corrections in both concept and execution” have been made based on the experiences of 2009. The strategist was skeptical that BBT has made a huge difference but said that it is net-positive. “It's just so clear that each created an org that mirrors who they are,” said one Democratic strategist working on 2022 race. ![]() The group does not have a field program and has instead centered on convening the progressive diaspora and spending over $35 million in advocacy ads promoting the Biden legislative agenda. OFA, in turn, focused its resources on field organizing -Obama’s pride and joy - which many DNC members felt was duplicative.īiden is a product of and ran as a candidate of the party establishment, and BBT reflects that. Obama fashioned himself as an insurgent running against the party establishment who had a cult following beyond the DNC ( he chose “renegade” as his secret service code name after all). When OFA was launched, it was under the belief that the Obama movement was geared around the candidate and not the party. If Biden decides to run for re-election and there is a primary challenge, DNC executive director SAM CORNALE told us: “We’re with Biden. That’s removed any potential uncertainty about how the party’s infrastructure would be deployed. Under his watch, the DNC, not BBT, has taken the lead role in political organizing and - still hypothetically - re-elect conversations, people familiar with the inner-workings told West Wing Playbook. President JOE BIDEN has taken a markedly different approach with both the DNC and his own outside group, Building Back Together (BBT). The result was the political organization Organizing for America (OFA), which played an outsized role in organizing around the 2010 midterms and, later, the 2012 re-elect. Rather than work through the committee, they decided to stand up one of their own. When President BARACK OBAMA entered office in 2009, he and his team warily eyed the Democratic National Committee, viewing it as part of the establishment they had just defeated and full of HILLARY CLINTON sympathizers. ![]() ![]() Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Lippman. Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.
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