Assignment: backgrounders on Obama's transition staff

Barack Obama has named his transition staff and an advisory board thereto (link). It would be interesting to know how many of them are part of or linked to the Chicago Machine or have other interesting links.

A few on the advisory board are known hereabouts: William Daley (brother of Chicago's mayor and supposedly clean 'n' mainstream), Janet Napolitano, and Federico Pena.

If searching for the names below reveals anything of interest, please leave a comment.

Others on the board are: Carol Browner, Christopher Edley, Michael Froman, Julius Genachowski, Donald Gips, Susan Rice, Sonal Shah, Mark Gitenstein, and Ted Kaufman. Per the link, "the latter two are Biden advisers."

And, here's the transition staff:

Chris Lu – Executive Director

Dan Pfeiffer – Communications Director

Stephanie Cutter – Chief Spokesperson

Cassandra Butts – General Counsel

Jim Messina – Personnel Director

Patrick Gaspard – Associate Personnel Director

Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel

Melody Barnes – Co-Director of Agency Review

Lisa Brown – Co-Director of Agency Review

Phil Schiliro – Director of Congressional Relations

Michael Strautmanis – Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs

Katy Kale – Director of Operations

Brad Kiley – Director of Operations

Politics · Wed, 11/05/2008 - 14:26 · · Importance: 1