Ray Malone's Commentary

There are several thousand appointed employees in a presidential administration. There are only dozens of executive positions in a campaign and a total staff of a few hundred. Believe me being the number 3 person on the presidential campaign staff in New Mexico is not much of a job.

But the current Clinton campaign staff is no where near the size of a staff hired for the primary season and it is smaller than the staff hired for the general election in 2008.

The chances of lower level member of the Clinton administration landing a job this early in the Hillary campaign are very slim. There may be a dozen or two people on her staff.

So what is an ambitious former Clinton administration employee likely to do? He or she will take a job with another candidate in the primary. All candidates want people experienced in the issues and experienced dealing with the media.

That leaves three choices. Consider members of academia. They may know the issues, but few have media or Washington D.C. experience. That leaves former Clinton people or finally former Carter people. It is not likely that many candidates would want a former Carter administration employee as a member of his top staff. The choice then is former Clinton staffers or former Clinton staffers.

It seems obvious that nearly all serious Democratic campaigns will be made up of former Clinton appointees. Unless a candidate wants to tackle the opportunity with a staff made up of rank amateurs, former Clinton people are the only choice.

There is one other point to consider. A prospective employee might very well take a top job with a candidate he doesn't think can win the nomination. But if that employee does a good job, and that candidates does a bit better than expected, there will be other candidates making offers when the first candidate drops out of the race. It is quite likely the Hillary campaign as one of the survivors will hire that person.

For example if a candidate is always prepared for every event, knowing what he should know, and is never blindsided, it is quite likely the person responsible for preparing that candidate will end up at some point on the candidate that wins the nomination's staff.

Imagine a Joe Biden who managed to keep his foot out of his mouth and sounding knowledgeable and intelligent for the remainder of the campaign. The Biden staffer perceived to have accomplished that great feet would be wooed by the Clinton campaign when hopeless Joe withdraws.

So everyone including Hillary expects former Clinton appointees to take jobs with other campaigns. And if they do at a later date join the victorious nominee, then that is what nearly always happens.

I would remind you of the 1980 Reagan and Bush Campaigns. Once Reagan won the nomination, Reagan hired a number of former Bush staffers. They were not hired to work for Bush and his Vice Presidential campaign. They were hired to work on the Reagan campaign.. because Reagan, Meece and Weinberger recognized that the former Bush staffers had skills they did not possess.

That is a beginners position. But being in the top 4 or 5 of a Biden or Dodd campaign will give a campaign worker much higher visibility.