Politico

By Ben Smith & David Paul Kuhn

Barack Obama’s move to merge key elements of the Democratic National Committee into his own campaign’s Chicago headquarters appears aimed at the goal of a centralized and united Democratic Party.

The move to Obama’s headquarters puts the Windy City squarely at the center of American politics for the first time since it was the scene of a Democratic Party meltdown at the 1968 convention.

Now, Obama’s large, deep-pocketed effort seems set to absorb and transform the committee’s key functions, and to reshape it after its own model, and largely on its own turf—though Obama’s former Iowa state director, Paul Tewes, will remain in Washington to oversee the party’s fundraising and media operations there. Obama’s aides credit part of their success to the Chicago location, with its relative isolation from the national media.

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