Top DNC Official Departs After Less Than A Year

NBC News reports:

The CEO of the Democratic National Committee is leaving after less than a year on the job, NBC News has learned.

Veteran Democrat operative Jess O’Connell took the helm of the DNC last May with a mandate to help newly installed Chairman Tom Perez turn around a troubled party organization that was struggling after years of neglect and a brutal 2016 that included accusations of favoritism in the primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the hacking of internal emails, and the loss to President Donald Trump.

O’Connell will leave the party stabilized, if not yet fully recovered, after wins last year in Virginia and Alabama, and her decision to leave is a personal one, a DNC official told NBC News, timed to cause minimal disruption ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The Washington Post reports:

In a statement to The Washington Post, DNC Chairman Tom Perez said that O’Connell joined the party “when it needed her most” — months after he won a lengthy and sometimes bitter contest to lead it.

“Her leadership brought a laser-like focus on winning elections up and down the ballot,” Perez said of O’Connell. “She helped build our Every Zip Code Counts strategy, oversaw unprecedented programming and support for state parties and campaigns, renewed our focus on data and technology, and helped lead us to 100+ victories in elections all across the country in 2017. ”