Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced the six members of the senior leadership team for the 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) in Denver last Thursday. The group will be organizing the convention itself and work with the Denver Host Committee on other convention activities. Dean said the staff will be moving to Denver in the near future.Colorado Democratic Party Vice-chair and Denver Host Committee member Dan Slater explained the difference between the two groups:
Right now, there are two separate organizations which are charged with running the Convention planning effort. The first is the Denver 2008 Host Committee, which most of you have heard about. Denver 2008 is locally-run and is the group that formed the convention bid and is now working to raise the money and volunteers to support that bid.
The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC), which is the arm of the DNC, is in charge with running the Convention for the DNC. The DNCC is the group that gets the FEC grant to run the Convention, and in the end, the DNCC will be spending most of the money raised by the Denver 2008 Host Committee.
In the end, the DNCC is primarily concerned with making sure that what goes on at the Convention is a good portrayal of Democrats in general and our nominee in specific. The Host Committee, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with making sure that Denver looks good.
Colorado Confidential’s “CCNet-TV” captured Dean’s announcement of the DNCC staff:
From a DNC press release, backgrounds of the DNCC head staff:
The DNCC leadership team is headed by Leah Daughtry who will serve as CEO of the 2008 Convention. Daughtry is currently the Chief of Staff at the DNC, managing day-to-day strategy and operations. She is a former U.S. Department of Labor assistant secretary during the Clinton Administration.
Peggy Cusack has been appointed as the DNCC Chief of staff. She is currently managing director of the Washington office of Rendezvous Consulting Group, a firm that specializes in the production and management of large scale, high profile events. She served in senior management roles on three presidential campaigns, two presidential inaugurations, planning committees for the Olympic Games, and two Democratic National Conventions.
Susana Carbajal is currently an attorney with the Bankruptcy and Specialty Litigation Department at the law firm of Brown McCarroll, L.L.P. Carbajal also served as associate deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel where she recruited and recommended candidates to President Clinton for appointments to cabinet departments, agencies, commissions and boards. She will serve as General Counsel for the DNCC.
Jenni R. Engebretsen is currently the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has been appointed to serve as Deputy CEO for Public Affairs. Before joining the RIAA, Engebretsen spent eight years working in Democratic politics, most recently as the Communications Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President campaign and for the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
The DNCC Deputy CEO for Intergovernmental Relations will be Sky Gallegos. She has worked with state and local elected officials spans the last 13 years and includes senior positions in government, corporate, non-profit and campaign arenas. In 2003, Gallegos was the National Political Director for the Edwards for President Campaign.
Cameron Moody, with more than 18 years of experience in project management, strategic planning, special event logistics, and transportation systems, was appointed as the Deputy CEO. Moody was Deputy CEO for Operations for the 2004 Democratic National Convention Committee.
Jim McMullen served as a career civil servant for 26 years at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and will be the DNCC CEO for Administration and Finance. Prior to his retirement in 2004, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Strategic Planning where he was responsible for the DOL budget which totaled $60 billion and 17,000 staff.
