Sestak flap amplifies questions about Obama political operation

The White House in 2009 was able to discourage two earlier challengers to Gillibrand from running against the senator.

The White House did not comment when asked to defend Gaspard.

But the revelation by Sestak, a retired Navy admiral, bears the fingerprints of involvement by either Emanuel or by deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.

It was Messina who was reported last fall to have held out the prospect of a position in the administration for former Colorado state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary this August.

“Rahm Emanuel has been trying to get rid of Romanoff ever since he did not go along with when he was told to sit down and shut up,” said Pat Caddell, a veteran Democratic strategist who was advising the Romanoff campaign until this past week, when he was dumped for calling public sector employee unions “thugs.”

During an interview with The Daily Caller this week after he was cut loose by Romanoff – a decision he said he understood – Caddell said Sestak was under the same duress as Romanoff from the White House.

“Ask about the pressure that the White House is bringing,” Caddell said.

Stacie Paxton, a Democratic communications adviser with experience at the Democratic National Committee and on campaigns, said that Sestak’s disclosure “won’t be winning him any friends in the White House.”

News of the White House leaning on Sestak – a charge the administration denied – spurred criticism from the right and defiance of the White House from the left.

Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the White House behavior “Chicago-style politics at its worst.”

“It’s precisely the type of politics that then-candidate Obama pledged would never take place in his White House,” Walsh said.

Lanny Davis, an influential member of the Clinton political world and former White House special counsel, came out publicly in favor of Sestak’s candidacy against Specter, who switched from Republican to Democrat last year.

“I consider Joe a close friend from the Hillary Clinton campaign and I greatly admire him,” Davis said in an interview. “He is one of the best members of the House of Representatives that I know, with the highest integrity and political courage, which is not a surprise given his heroic military career.”

“I wholeheartedly endorse him and hope he’ll be a senator. However, I have the greatest respect for Sen. Specter, and I also respect the reasons why President Obama endorsed him,” Davis said.

Sestak and Romanoff are just the two most visible examples of White House pressure on Democratic candidates to get out of the way of incumbents or candidates that have been handpicked.

In Ohio, David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s presidential campaign and has been in close contact with the White House all year while writing a book, sent out a fundraising e-mail for Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who is the preferred candidate over Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

In North Carolina, the DSCC convinced state Sen. Cal Cunningham to enter the primary despite the presence already of Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in the race. Cunningham announced his candidacy in December, on the very day that Marshall was attending the funeral of her husband, who died of cancer.

The result is a disorganized mess, in some Democrats’ opinions.

“It feels like there are too many cooks in the kitchen,” said a veteran Democratic political operative.

And as the political environment has continued to deteriorate for the president’s party, there is talk now that the Democrat’s 59-seat majority in the Senate may be at risk. Republican are looking at picking up seats in North Dakota, Delaware, Arkansas, Nevada, Illinois, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

Attempting to assert more control over the process, the White House last month placed Plouffe in charge of Democratic strategy for the midterm elections, with an official role at the DNC.