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Friday, Jan 18, 2013 5:03 AM UTC

AP sources: Obama team to form agenda group

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Topics: From the Wires,

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an unprecedented move, President Barack Obama’s vaunted political organization is being turned into a nonprofit group — funded in part by corporate money — to mobilize support behind the president’s second term agenda.

Democratic officials familiar with the plan said Thursday the tax-exempt organization will be called Organizing for Action and seek to harness the energy of the president’s re-election campaign for future legislative fights. Officials said the group will be separate from the Democratic National Committee and advocate on key policy issues such as gun control and immigration, train future leaders and devote attention to local issues around the nation.

The president’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, will serve as the group’s national chairman, and White House official Jon Carson is leaving the administration to become its executive director. The officials said the organization plans to accept donations from individuals and corporations — and disclose their identities — but not take money from lobbyists and political action committees, a move in line with donor rules set up for the president’s Inaugural Committee. It will have offices in Washington and Chicago, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans ahead of an announcement on Friday.

Coming just days before Obama’s second inauguration, the move represents the first time a sitting president has ever transformed his presidential campaign operation into an outside group with the express purpose of promoting his agenda.

Obama campaign aides and volunteers are expected to discuss the group at a conference on Sunday focused on the future of the campaign organization and the president’s legacy.

The new Obama group was first reported Thursday by the Los Angeles Times.

The group’s board of directors will include several former White House and campaign aides, including former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, top campaign officials Stephanie Cutter, Jennifer O’Malley-Dillon and Julianna Smoot, and Frank White, a businessman and prominent Obama donor.

White House aide David Plouffe, the 2008 campaign manager, is expected to join the board after he leaves the administration later this month. Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod will serve as a consultant to it.

More By Ken Thomas.

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