By TARINI PARTI, POLITICO – Julianna Smoot was there from the very beginning of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, giving the Illinois senator a simple, yet daunting assignment: call a list of donors and convince them to pitch in as much as they could to a campaign expected to eventually lose to Hillary Clinton.

Those donor lists over the years developed into a sprawling network of bundlers, which helped Obama shatter fundraising records twice, raising $880 million in 2008 and more than $ 1 billion in 2012.

Now, Smoot hopes to tap that Obama donor network for two separate causes: the new Organizing for Action nonprofit group and Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic super PAC tied to Majority Leader Harry Reid.

OFA is the offshoot of Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign that has pledged to be non-partisan but is controlling Obama’s Twitter account and advocating for White House priorities including gun control and immigration.

Other former Obama campaign and White House veterans are also working for OFA, but group officials — and Obama — have repeatedly said the new group’s mission is clear and distinct from electoral politics because it’s organized around issues.

“OFA is organized around issues rather than 2014,” Obama told House Republicans at a meeting last month.

Smoot said she sees no problem with doing both jobs.

“I’m passionate about both groups. I’m a Democrat, so I want to make sure Democrats keep the majority in the Senate,” she said in a wide-ranging interview.

“And with [OFA], I want to help in ways that don’t conflict,” she said. “I feel very strongly about both of them.”

via Democrats tap Obama donor network for OFA, Senate races – Tarini Parti – POLITICO.com.