Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that President Obama’s new advocacy group, Organizing for Action (OFA), would overtake the role of the DNC.
In an interview on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Wasserman Schultz was asked if the president’s advocacy arm would be competing with the DNC for money and for relevance ahead of the 2014 election.
Wasserman Schultz said the two groups would complement each other and help Democrats better prepare for those congressional elections.
“The president is going to be robustly be involved in raising money for the Democratic National Committee and for his political arm,” said Wasserman Schultz. “The DNC couldn’t be more relevant. I actually am really glad OFA has decided to stay active.”
“Typically between elections you have a harder time when you don’t have a candidate or volunteers to stay engaged and motivated around. Now we have this organization that is going to be able to keep our volunteers engaged and involved from one election day to the next,” she said.
The new Obama group was created from the remnants of the president’s own campaign machine, and the White House says it will help promote the administration’s agenda. Many Democrats, though, have expressed frustration that the new group could take away resources and fundraising from the national party.
OFA has also attracted criticism from watchdog groups, who allege that it is selling access to the president and White House officials to donors.
The group, though, has rejected those claims, with press secretary Jay Carney calling such accusations “absurd and wrong.”
Obama is scheduled to speak to donors at the advocacy group's "founder's summit” on Wednesday.
Wasserman Schultz welcomed the group’s creation earlier this year.
“One of the powerful lessons we learned from our victory this cycle is that we can’t start from scratch every four years. I’m thrilled that the president has announced that OFA will not end with the 2012 elections,” she said at a DNC meeting in January.
On Tuesday, the DNC chairwoman said that the Obama group would help keep Democratic supporters involved in the process.
“OFA will be involved with making sure that we keep our grassroots activists engaged and then they will be turned loose on the campaigns in 2014 and help us win the majority in the House back,” she said.
