Clinton brings in Mook, Benenson for likely team

Hillary Clinton is beginning to put together the pieces for a likely campaign, tapping two top strategists — including President Barack Obama’s pollster — to work with her in the lead-up toward an ultimate decision.

Robby Mook, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign and is widely expected to be Clinton’s campaign manager, and Joel Benenson, Obama’s pollster who had for months been eyed for a role on her team, have been working with her as she makes a final decision and begins to put together a framework for a staff, according to people close to the former Secretary of State.


But, if he is hired, Benenson’s presence in the campaign would mark a major departure for Clinton, who stayed in her comfort zone in her previous campaigns using Mark Penn, the pollster and message guru who had worked for her husband. After she shook up her campaign in the second half of the 2008 primaries, Clinton made Geoff Garin her main pollster.

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Obama’s campaign used Benenson as part of a team of pollsters, an approach Clinton is said to be considering for her next effort. And he would come to her off two successful presidential races.

Mook, who won Obama aides’ respect for the job her did out-organizing them in a string of states in the 2008 primaries, has been holding meetings with people, according to multiple sources, to begin planning for a likely campaign.

Mook and Benenson did not respond to emails seeking comment. And a Clinton campaign is not expected to be launched for several weeks, possibly as late as mid-spring.

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A Clinton aide, asked about the two men’s involvement in her current plans, said, “She has said that she is seriously considering running for president. She’s casting a wide net, meeting with a variety of experts to discuss the economy and a range of challenges facing American families. And she’s using this time to look at what components are necessary to build an inclusive, thoughtful and technically advanced campaign, so that if she decides to run, she’ll be ready.”

Mook is expected to be part of a team with current White House hand John Podesta, a longtime Clinton adviser. Clinton advisers are said to favorably view the two as a pair, in which Podesta will have either the chairman’s job or a different senior title.

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