a hillary clinton win tuesday doesn<u+2019>t exactly mean job security for the current appointees by president barack obama.  | getty thousands of obama loyalists will be asked to submit resignation letters before jan. 20. by sarah wheaton 11/05/16 07:36 am edt president barack obama plans to ask the thousands of political appointees across his administration to submit letters of resignation effective on inauguration day, a move that follows a time-honored tradition but is stoking anxiety among his loyalists throughout the federal government. for the first time in 28 years, there<u+2019>s the prospect of a same-party transition, and with hillary clinton vowing to build on obama<u+2019>s agenda, that could have been good news for any of his 4,000 political appointees who might want to keep their jobs beyond jan. 20. story continued below but despite the eight-year process of merging the democrats<u+2019> political networks, the expectation remains that clinton will largely replace obama<u+2019>s executive branch staff <u+2014> from cabinet secretaries to deputy chiefs of staff to low-level press assistants <u+2014> with her own. compared to the skeletal political machine that obama built as a freshman senator from illinois, clinton has <u+201c>a far larger universe of people who have relationships with her or have worked with her over the years,<u+201d> said tommy vietor, who went from driving a press van for then-sen. obama to becoming his top national security spokesman in the white house. if clinton wins on tuesday, no one is expecting the same sort of mass exodus of staff that would come with a donald trump victory. but it doesn<u+2019>t exactly mean job security for the current appointees, either, though they<u+2019>re more likely to be asked to stick around until their replacements start. by edward-isaac dovere "it's been a pretty open process with the white house liaison offices over the last year that no one should expect a position in the next administration," a recently departed obama administration official said. when asked by politico, the white house confirmed that obama would do his part to clear the way for clinton<u+2019>s staff picks. in accordance with the <u+201c>well-respected principle that the incoming president selects her or his own team,<u+201d> said white house spokeswoman brandi hoffine, obama <u+201c>plans to follow the past practice of asking appointees to submit resignation letters effective upon the inauguration of the new president.<u+201d> and many of obama<u+2019>s appointees don<u+2019>t even know if they would want to stay. after serving multiple grueling years trying to carry out obama<u+2019>s agenda, workers with political posts are wondering whether they have gas left in the tank, whether they could affect more change outside government, and whether it<u+2019>s time to make more cash. <u+201c>there are a lot of us stepping out of an eight-year whirlwind of service, and thinking, <u+2018>i don<u+2019>t own a house and i have no kids,<u+2019><u+201d> said jesse moore, 34, a longtime white house aide who recently left to work on youth advocacy and political mobilization. <u+201c>people who served in his white house worked pretty damn hard for a really long time,<u+201d> moore said. he predicted that some will stay, and others will come back to serve later. but for now they<u+2019>re eager, he said, <u+201c>to build or pay more attention to their families and get home in time for dinner most days.<u+201d> a likely situation for many political appointees if clinton wins is limbo <u+2014> perhaps for a while. clinton may choose to hang on to quite a few people, at least until she can complete the process of filling out her own government, which can take a year. by nolan d. mccaskill alida garcia, head of a new effort to boost the ranks of blacks and hispanics in government, said her group, inclusv, has been getting <u+201c>daily outreach from appointees of color in the obama administration concerned about their future job opportunities who lack clarity on what the job market will look like shortly with thousands of people moving to town.<u+201d> meanwhile, clinton<u+2019>s campaign and transition team are deeply resistant to discussing who<u+2019>ll serve in her government, insisting that they<u+2019>re single-mindedly focused on winning the election. there<u+2019>s very limited precedent for a two-term president to be followed by a member of the same party. indeed, when ronald reagan<u+2019>s vice president, george h. w. bush won in 1988 <u+2014> the last same-party white house transition <u+2014> it didn<u+2019>t go over well when large numbers of reagan appointees were dismissed. chase untermeyer, bush<u+2019>s personnel director, recalled dealing with the <u+201c>the pain and outrage that comes from removing someone from office.<u+201d> reagan, who campaigned enthusiastically for bush as essentially a third gipper term, ordered his appointees to submit resignation letters, and bush could decide which to accept. untermeyer sent out surveys asking reagan appointees whether they wanted to keep their jobs, or if they wanted a new position within the new administration. but ultimately, there was heavy turnover. bush <u+201c>absolutely believed in making sure that his longtime supporters were remembered,<u+201d> untermeyer said. untermeyer maintained a list of the <u+201c>truly deserving<u+201d> bush loyalists who<u+2019>d get preference for jobs. the famed bush strategist lee atwater also believed strongly in rewarding young campaign staffers with <u+201c>schedule c<u+201d> positions, the lowest-level of political appointments, untermeyer recalled in an interview. by madeline conway if the clintons keep such a list, it has accumulated a lot of names over their three decades in politics. confidants like to cite an aphorism: obama travels light; the clintons have a lot of baggage. <u+201c>with obama, he had essentially no political network in chicago and it was just sort of the senate office or people who had done the campaign work who were likely to come with him,<u+201d> said vietor, who left the white house in 2013 to found a strategic communications firm on the west coast. clinton, vietor said <u+201c>is in a different place,<u+201d> with a political network that includes her time in arkansas, as first lady, senator and secretary of state, not to mention two presidential campaigns. further dimming the prospects for obama<u+2019>s schedule cs and other appointees who want one of the 4,000 spots clinton will have to fill: most of the people currently serving in the administration are barred by law from helping campaign. but people who<u+2019>ve worked closely with clinton as she<u+2019>s climbed the political ladder caution against the perception that she<u+2019>s committed to paying back political favors. they warn that she<u+2019>s primarily interested in talent, so clinton loyalists and donors hoping for a gig might end up being just as disappointed as obama veterans who want to stay. and despite the early bad blood after their bitter 2008 primary battle, there<u+2019>s still tons of overlap in the clinton-obama venn diagram. just look at the leadership in her campaign: jen palmieri and john podesta held top posts in obama<u+2019>s white house. spokesman brian fallon<u+2019>s last job was in the justice department. jacob leibenluft left obama<u+2019>s national economics council in june to join clinton<u+2019>s brooklyn policy shop. her transition team includes obama veterans tom donilon and stephanie valencia ramirez. they<u+2019>re all likely to recruit at least some former colleagues. but the degree of continuity isn<u+2019>t fully clinton<u+2019>s prerogative. many obama administration aides, whether they<u+2019>re at 1600 pennsylvania avenue or grinding away at the agencies, say they<u+2019>re ready for a break, whether that<u+2019>s a six-month vacation or a stint in the private sector. by gabriel debenedetti a lot of them have moved on, and so did kevin samy, 29, for a while at least. he spent the past year consulting after serving as a speechwriter in obama<u+2019>s environmental protection agency and defense department. citing the <u+201c>pull of public service<u+201d> and his support for clinton and sen. tim kaine, samy is eager to work in the next democratic administration. but he explained the mindset of those who aren<u+2019>t. there<u+2019>s the obama movement factor, for one thing. it<u+2019>s not so much that alumni don<u+2019>t want to work for clinton as much as they were never especially ambitious about politics in the traditional washington sense. "i didn't get into politics for politics sake, i got into it because i was inspired by what barack obama stands for,<u+201d> samy said. <u+201c>you'll find a lot of people with that same story. and there are a lot of ways to still make good on his mission, inside and outside of government." indeed, the millennials and gen-xers who got their first taste of the political process during the obama years got a harsh view of its limits, especially as a republican congress stymied obama<u+2019>s initiatives. so if obama alumni are leaving not just the administration but the washington game at unusually high rates <u+2014> many have decamped to the west coast <u+2014> <u+201c>it<u+2019>s more of a function of personal and professional reality eight years later,<u+201d> samy said, <u+201c>it's not that obama folks don't care.<u+201d> the <u+201c>ultimate question,<u+201d> he added, is whether the clinton administration, which is likely to still need 60-plus votes in the senate and a miracle in the house if it<u+2019>s going to pass any bills, is the best way to fulfill <u+201c>obama<u+2019>s underlying mission of change and service.<u+201d> they<u+2019>ve watched the president use his convening power to convince executives to make changes, and wonder if the flatter world of business would be a more effective approach to, for example, fighting climate change. there<u+2019>s also the less-voiced advantage of the salary boost. <u+201c>let<u+2019>s say you could effect big change at a place like wal-mart, spacex, amazon, or google, versus a mid-level position in government,<u+201d> samy said. <u+201c>you can still make a large and legitimate impact on society." but hundreds of appointees eager to stay in their posts, hopefully with clinton at the helm, are stuck with a waiting game. hoffine said the white house is <u+201c>committed to providing out-going appointees the information they need to plan for their own transitions.<u+201d> that includes working with agency personnel heads to make sure appointees get extra personnel and benefits information before the administration ends. <u+201c>get comfortable with the fact that this is gonna take a while,<u+201d> vietor wrote in a recent medium post titled <u+201c>a brief guide to surviving transition.<u+201d> it takes weeks for the process of hiring cabinet secretaries and their chiefs of staff to filter down. <u+201c>this part sucks the most,<u+201d> he warned, <u+201c>because the bosses and colleagues you love will be preoccupied with figuring out what happens to them before they can stop to think about you.<u+201d> andrew restuccia contributed to this report. by bill scher by joshua zeitz by thomas wright by jack shafer
obama to ask his political appointees to clear way for clinton - politico
sarah wheaton edward-isaac dovere nolan d. mccaskill madeline conway gabriel debenedetti jack shafer