Robby Mook has been spending a lot of time on the phone.

The all-but-announced campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s all-but-certain presidential campaign has spent the past month making calls, including to many top people from President Barack Obama’s two campaigns and his White House, asking for advice on whom to hire and how to run the campaign.


He’s nowhere near done.

Despite widespread assumptions that Clinton has assembled a campaign juggernaut ready to be unveiled as soon as she makes her White House run official, the reality is that she has little more than a budding operation that’s far from set — either in how the jobs will be structured or who will be in them.

“It’s a common misconception that there was some sort of campaign-in-waiting. They are building this deliberately and smartly — one piece at a time,” said a Democrat familiar with the process.

The integration of Obama’s and Clinton’s worlds will be propelled by people with both Clinton and Obama ties for the jobs of chairman (John Podesta), communications chief (Jennifer Palmieri) and campaign consultant (Jim Margolis). Mook has also been looking to Obama alumni for top press, political, field and data jobs — and not just his close friend Marlon Marshall, a Clinton 2008 staffer who later joined the Obama orbit and departed the White House late last year on what was seen as a natural trajectory toward Clinton HQ.

Obama loyalists who have been part of, or the subject of, hiring discussions for the campaign and advisory roles include Betsy Hoover, Obama’s 2012 director of digital organizing, who could head up Clinton’s digital operation. While White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz is being discussed as a later, post-primary addition, former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, who helped the Clinton camp with June 2014’s book rollout, is also frequently part of the discussions. And Yohannes Abraham, currently a top aide to Valerie Jarrett, is seen as joining the political staff.

Other operatives who have featured in conversations among Democrats building the campaign include first lady Michelle Obama’s former communications director Kristina Schake, who is currently the chief communications officer at L’Oréal USA and who is seen as headed for a deputy role on the communications team. Matt Canter, the former deputy executive director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who has no direct Obama ties, could also join down the road.

Obama 2012 pollster John Anzalone has been active in Clinton’s circles, and two more top 2012 campaign officials — deputy campaign managers Stephanie Cutter and Jen O’Malley Dillon, who co-founded Precision Strategies — have also been part of the ongoing discussions for advisory roles.

Mook has essentially been putting markers on prospective staff to keep them accessible as he holds off on formal hires. In the meantime, he’s building an operation to grapple with the unique problems a Clinton campaign poses, including reassembling the biggest network of old Democratic hands since her husband’s presidency while limiting dysfunction and infighting. He also needs to keep Clinton vibrant in the midst of the least competitive non-incumbent presidential primary in decades.

“They’re being extremely thoughtful and deliberate in their approach,” said one person involved. “But it’s a process, and there’s a lot of work left to do.”

Already, two themes are becoming clear: The Clinton campaign, determined to avoid the 2008 mistake of being caught unprepared for the changes in politics and campaign tactics, will rely heavily on Obama alumni to get it up to speed. And between the Obama infusion and the Clinton loyalists quickly returning to the fold, there will be few prominent slots open for up-and-coming Democratic operatives looking to break in.

That’s created more than just anxiety that the Obama-Clinton drama of 2008 will linger — it’s also created fear that a new generation of Democratic operatives will be left out of the 2016 cycle entirely.

The staff overlap may also complicate efforts to show a necessary distance between Clinton from Obama — and it’s already sparked worries that the Clinton operation might repeat some of the Obama operation’s mistakes, particularly in messaging that’s often fallen short when not centered on the force of his personality.

The highest-ranking Obama confidant likely to enter Clinton’s orbit is pollster Joel Benenson, though some see a more direct role for Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina. He’s the co-chair of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action, where Obama’s 2012 get-out-the-vote director Buffy Wicks is now the executive director. There’s also Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart, veterans of both Obama campaigns who are backing Ready for Hillary through their firm 270 Strategies. Obama’s 2012 digital director Teddy Goff has also been in talks with Clinton’s orbits, and he could be joined by Andrew Bleeker, an Obama online advertising strategist.

Mook did not respond to a request for comment, and none of the potential hires — some of whom have spoken directly with Mook — would comment about their possible roles in the emerging campaign.

“I’m going to stick to my rule of no name-gaming,” said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill.

Despite the fact that few of these people have been hired for set roles, Mook—the rare Democratic operative who’s young and experienced but without direct Obama ties — is working to build a structure that coheres, though many figures on both sides acknowledge some tension between the two worlds remains. The presence of Mook, who was the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and campaign manager for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, is a relief to many Clinton loyalists, much like Benenson’s hiring was a strong sign to Obama allies of the Clinton orbits’ seriousness in bringing on Obama’s world.

“Joel has been a close adviser to the president since the beginning of the campaign in 2007, so the fact that he’s going on in a broader role in the Clinton campaign was a significant indicator of the level of outreach to people who worked for President Obama,” said Obama’s 2012 campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt.

The bad blood between the Obama and Clinton inner circles generated by their brutal 2008 primary battle still exists, but it doesn’t appear to affect these staffers. Even among the Obama core, there’s an acceptance that Clinton is more than just a quasi-incumbent Democrat to support based on party loyalty — her election would be critical to preserving much of the legacy Obama is trying to build at the end of his term through executive actions.

Still, some young operatives who have not spoken with Mook are griping that they will very likely miss the cycle entirely. Unlike the 2008 race, where there were so many candidates that the debate stages were packed even after Evan Bayh and Mark Warner abandoned their presidential runs early — and staff jobs abounded — a threatening challenger to Clinton has yet to emerge, and expected candidates Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb have not been making comparable hiring inquiries.

With Clinton putting off her launch for months, the people who are looking to lock down their paychecks are getting antsy.

“People thought she’d launch a PAC, start staffing up in a big way, and launch in January, February or March,” said one Democratic operative who worked for Clinton in 2008 and Obama in 2012. “There isn’t anywhere for the nervous energy to go. And it’s not just that, people want to start working. The people who want to start working for Hillary are pretty well established, but [others] aren’t couch-surfing waiting for that job.”

Republicans have used the lull to develop a line of attack that Clinton is “hiding,” even as they continue to seed the attack lines of an “Obama-Clinton economy” or “Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”

While such criticisms mount, Clinton allies are fine with her operation keeping quiet — for now.

“The lack of a significant challenger in the primary buys the Clinton campaign some time to focus on building out a grass-roots organization and fundraising, and gives them a longer runway to get the plane in the air,” LaBolt said. “But they will have to deal with Republicans who are out at red-meat events, guns blazing, who will be attacking the campaign and the Democratic Party each and every day.”