Story Published:
Nov 17, 2008 at 3:56 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Dec 5, 2008 at 2:20 PM CDT
Arianna Huffington, a liberal political blogger, reports someone is floating Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, as a possible replacement for Howard Dean as chair of the Democratic National Committee. Dean may relinquish his chairmanship after four years.
McCaskill was a national co-chair of Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency. A winning presidential candidate usually gets to select the chair of his party's national committee.
It's possible that the next chair would be the face of the DNC in interviews and talk shows while another person would actually run the party's operations. That would leave a chair like McCaskill, for instance, free to concentrate on her senatorial duties.
In an e-mail message on Monday, McCaskill's news secretary, Maria Speiser said, "It’s just a rumor. We’re not sure who started it, but Claire has not had any conversations with the Obama team about the position. She’s pretty happy being senator and representing Missourians, so she’s staying put."
The DNC will select a new chair in January while members are in Washington, D.C., for Obama's inauguration.
