White House communications team grows as Obama fills spots

November 23, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary and reached outside his inner circle for the post of White House communications director.

The director of communications will be Ellen Moran, the current executive director of the Washington group EMILY’s List, an active supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s during the Democratic presidential primary. Moran will join a team of longtime close advisers who will work closely with Obama on a daily basis.

Obama’s choice of Moran was a surprise compared with that of Gibbs, who went to work for Obama’s Senate campaign in 2004 and was communications director while Obama was in the Senate. Moran’s deputy in the White House will be Dan Pfeiffer, currently the communications director for Obama’s presidential transition team.

Moran will head the team in charge of getting Obama’s message out. As the head of EMILY’s, which backs Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights, Moran has said Obama would have to work hard to win over women supporters who felt let down after Clinton’s historic presidential bid fell short.

Gibbs worked for several Southern Democrats and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee before heading to Chicago to work in Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2004.

Pfeiffer helped manage the press operation on the Obama campaign. Before that, Pfeiffer worked as Sen. Evan Bayh’s communications director and Sen. Tom Daschle’s deputy campaign manager in 2004. He has also worked for the Democratic Governors Association and the Gore-Lieberman campaign.