Politics

Glen Johnson, AP Writer
BOSTON (AP) ― For John Kerry, White House hopes died in November 2004. For his staff, the dream lives on.

Senior members of the team that helped Kerry come from behind to win the Democrats' last presidential nomination, only to lose the general election, have found new political life in the campaign of another senator trying to win the presidency, Barack Obama.

Kerry's deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom now works as Obama's policy director.

Kerry communications aide Stephanie Cutter is a senior adviser to Obama and chief of staff to his wife, Michelle. And Kerry's national finance chairman, Lou Susman, is a top fundraiser for his fellow Chicagoan's campaign.

Even two who left Kerry's team under unpleasant circumstances, Jim Margolis and Robert Gibbs, have prominent roles in the Obama campaign.

Gibbs resigned in 2003 as press secretary after Kerry's original campaign manager, Jim Jordan, was ousted and replaced by Democratic operative Mary Beth Cahill. Gibbs soon found work as communications director for Obama, then an Illinois state senator and U.S. Senate candidate.

Today, Gibbs continues to fill that role for Obama and recently added the title of senior adviser.

Margolis left after Kerry won the Democratic nomination in 2004. He had a testy dispute about the split of general election advertising revenues with Robert Shrum, whom Kerry had brought in to help with campaign messaging. Margolis now works with chief strategist David Axelrod, leading a team that produces Obama's commercials and daily message.

Gibbs and Margolis take satisfaction in working on a campaign that not only has the chance to make history by electing the first black president but also has been free of the infighting that became an unpleasant hallmark of the last campaign.

"There's no vindication," said Gibbs. "I don't think it's that. I guess I look on it as there are very few opportunities like we have right now or the Kerry campaign had found years ago, so we just want to work every day to take advantage of that opportunity."

Jordan, Gibbs' former boss, especially relishes the success of his protege and that of Margolis, whom he considers one of the top Democratic ad-makers.

"John assembled an enormously talented staff and political team. It's hardly a surprise that some of those people have emerged to play important roles with Sen. Obama's campaign," said Jordan.

What's their value?

"Having the feel for an enterprise this big and difficult is an obvious advantage," said Jordan, who served as senior adviser this year on the presidential campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

From election to election, campaign operatives in both parties seek to align themselves with the next can't-miss candidate or freshen their resume for the lucrative private sector work awaiting those with ties to a new president, senator or member of the House.

The 2008 presidential campaign is no exception and has produced some unexpected role reversals.

Mark McKinnon, whose media campaign helped then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush eviscerate John McCain during a nasty 2000 South Carolina primary campaign, took his signature cowboy hat over to the McCain campaign this cycle and helped the Arizona senator secure the 2008 GOP nomination.

On the Democratic side, Patti Solis Doyle, who served as rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign manager until being ousted in February, is now working for Obama. She will be chief of staff to whomever Obama chooses as his running mate, which might even put her in the awkward situation of working again for Clinton.

Solis Doyle told The Associated Press in a recent interview she cleared her new job with her former boss.

And Kerry himself has not ruled out joining the Obama team.

The Massachusetts Democrat endorsed his Senate colleague in January, a boost just after Obama lost to Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. In 2004, Kerry picked Obama -- then just a Senate candidate -- to give the convention keynote speech in prime time.

That history has prompted talk, fueled by Kerry's foreign affairs forays, that he may be in line to become secretary of state in an Obama administration. It wouldn't be the presidency, but the nation's top diplomatic post is third in the line of presidential succession.

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