WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary and reached outside his inner circle for his White House communications director.
The director of communications will be Ellen Moran, who is executive director of the Washington group Emily’s List. She will join a team of longtime close advisers who will work closely with Obama on a daily basis.
Her deputy in the White House will be Dan Pfeiffer, communications director for Obama’s transition team.
Gibbs went to work for Obama’s Senate campaign in 2004 and was communications director while Obama was in the Senate.
Moran will be in charge of getting Obama’s message out. Emily’s, a group that backs female candidates who support abortion rights, was an active supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the presidential primary. Moran also has worked for the AFL-CIO and has helped plan inaugurals for President Bill Clinton. The Associated Press
