Inner circles of power
Each US presidential candidate is required by the Federal Campaigns Act of 1971 to assemble a campaign organisation distinct from the national party staff. The group usually includes an inner circle of advisers who are close to the candidates.
Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s organisations include a campaign manager, a chief pollster, communications director and general diary manager.
The candidates’ inner circle are often people who have either worked with them in previous campaigns, served them in comparable positions, or are long-term close acquaintances.
Whoever becomes the president, he will certainly appoint many of his inner circle into powerful positions within the White House.
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Joe Biden
Vice President
In choosing then Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice-presidential nominee in 2008, President Barack Obama picked a veteran debater who portrays himself as a passionate defender of the working class. Biden, who has previously served as the chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been credited with being a key player in some of the biggest decisions taken by the Obama administration.
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David Plouffe
Senior Advisor
Plouffe was Obama's campaign manager in 2008 and this time round is helping to shape the president's re-election strategy. Plouffe returned to Obama’s side in 2010 and is arguably the most important person in melding Obama's policies with politics. All major election decisions, strategies and ideas run though Plouffe. Plouffe only completed his undergraduate degree in May 2010 after leaving his studies in 1989 to pursue a full-time career in politics.
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Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
As Obama's campaign manager, Messina, who was Plouffe's deputy in 2008, oversees the operation to re-elect the president from Chicago. Messina works closely with pollsters from the Democratic Party to ensure the right messages and strategies are in place to win the crucial swing states. As Obama's former deputy chief of staff, he was often referred to as "the fixer".
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David Axelrod
Consultant
A former journalist from Chicago, Axelrod is Obama's oldest political confidant, advising the president since the early 1990s and a driving force behind Obama's message of change during the 2008 campaign. Axelrod became a White House advisor in 2008, but quit his job in early 2011 to concentrate on the election. Axelrod started his career in 1977 as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering national, state and local politics for eight years.
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Stephanie Cutter
Deputy Campaign Manager
A veteran of the 2004 John Kerry campaign and the 2008 Obama campaign, Cutter has been described by the New York Times as Obama's "one-woman attack squad". Cutter was appointed senior advisor and chief of staff to Michelle Obama in 2008 and is credited with increasing the First Lady's popularity with the public. Cutter has worked for the former president, Bill Clinton as his deputy director of communications, and had also served as Ted Kennedy's director of communications as well.
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Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor
An Obama family friend ,trusted aide and fundraiser, Jarrett was born in Iran to US parents. She currently serves as Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration. A former senior White House official, who wished to remain anonymous, described the Chicago lawyer and businesswoman as "the single most influential person in the Obama White House".
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Robert Gibbs
Senior Campaign Advisor
Gibbs was Obama's campaign spokesman in 2008, later becoming White House press secretary. He left the position in early 2011 to concentrate on Obama's re-election. Now managing Obama's media strategy, Gibbs was with the president before he first gained national prominence during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
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Joel Benenson
Chief Pollster
Benenson, who took a lead role in Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, is close to Axelrod, with one former aide describing their partnership as a "vaudeville act". Benenson's jobs before becoming a pollster in 1995, included working as a political journalist for the New York Daily News, a stint in beer distribution, and a role in the knife sales industry. Benenson served as communications director for New York Governor Mario Cuomo's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1994 and Bill Clinton's winning bid for the presidency in 1996. He also coached former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the country's televised election debates in 2010.
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Paul Ryan
Vice Presidental Candidate
A staunch conservative from Wisconsin, Paul Ryan has been a member of the US House of Representatives since 1999. The 42-year-old father of three began his career in politics early on, working for various Republican legislators until he himself took up national public office at the age of just 28. Ryan is a favourite with the conservative Tea Party movement, an anti-tax, limited-government advocacy group that helped Republicans retake the House in 2010.
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Matt Rhoades
Campaign Manager
A veteran campaign manager, Rhoades is political consultant and strategist for the Republican National Committee (RNC). A former vice president of DCI Group, a public relations firm, he was communications director for Romney's 2008 campaign for the presidency. During the 2006 mid-term elections Rhoades was a deputy communications research director for the RNC. In the 2004 presidential election, he was director of opposition research for the campaign to re-elect George W Bush. While he is among the least high-profile of Romney's political advisers, Rhoades is considered by many to be central to the operation - consulted on matters large and small.
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Neil Newhouse
Chief Pollster
Romney's pollster since his successful 2002 bid for governor of Massachusetts, Newhouse is seen as a key asset in helping to win crucial swing-states. Newhouse was criticised by Obama in August after he said Romney’s campaign would not "be dictated by fact-checkers". in Originally from Kansas City, Newhouse graduated from Duke University and attended graduate school at the University of Virginia. He lives in Alexandria with his wife and their two children.
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Beth Myers
Senior Advisor
Myers served as chief of staff during Romney's time as governor of Massachusetts and managed his 2008 bid for the presidency. She was responsible for leading the search for Romney's vice presidential nominee in 2012. Myers is valued for her judgement and handling of the campaign team. Myers worked for Karl Rove, George W Bush's communications advisor, during the 1980s in Texas.
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Kevin Madden
Senior Advisor
Madden served as the official spokesman for Romney's bid for the presidency in 2008. In 2012 he has played a lesser role in the campaign, but Romney aides say Madden will be travelling more with the candidate as the campaign enters its final stages. Madden is known as a staunch critic of Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee. In May, Madden said Palin used a "presidential campaign as a vehicle to build a little bit more of a profile as a celebrity".
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Spencer Zwick
National Finance Chair
Zwick is the national finance chair of Romney's campaign, responsible for raising money for the bid. Zwick worked in the executive office of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organising Committee for the 2002 Winter Games. Zwick is often referred to as "Romney's sixth son," due to his close relationship with the candidate, who has five sons.
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Cofer Black
Foreign Policy Special Advisor
Black is known as a counter-terrorism expert, serving both Presidents Clinton and George W Bush. While working for the CIA in 2001, Black was responsible for organising the intelligence drive which assisted the US military in Afghanistan during the winter of that year. In October 2011, Black was chosen by Romney to serve as special advisor on all foreign policy issues.
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Walid Phares
Foreign Policy Special Advisor
Phares is a US academic, originally from Lebanon, who specialises in the study of global terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs. Romney's choice as Phares as a special advisor on foreign affairs has proved controversial as a result of Phares' previous membership of the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias accused of committing atrocities during the county's civil war. Phares emigrated to the US in 1990 and since 2008 has taught global strategies at Washington's National Defence University.
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