Clinton Looks to Trusted Adviser To Re-Energize Flagging Campaign

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Clinton: Priorities for D.C.

During an interview Monday evening Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) answered a question about what she plans to do for Washington, D.C. if elected president.

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The question for some Clinton allies is whether Williams can make the shifts needed to reverse Clinton's political fortunes after a string of losses. Although she has already lifted spirits in the campaign, Williams has not unveiled a new strategic vision. Her specialties are communications and management, not political field work, the area that has proved most challenging for Clinton so far.

Williams and Clinton met at the Children's Defense Fund in the 1980s, when Williams worked there and Clinton served on the board. The two found a "common worldview," Williams said in an interview published in The Washington Post earlier this year. In her autobiography, Clinton describes turning to Williams during her husband's 1992 presidential campaign when she was assembling her own staff. "I admired her skills as a leader and communicator and thought she would be able to handle with aplomb whatever happened," Clinton wrote.

Williams is a battle-tested operative -- she weathered the storms of the Clinton administration while serving as the first lady's chief of staff -- whom allies believe can "pick up the pieces" that have begun to drift, in the words of one. Described as warm, effusive and able to give orders with confidence, Williams began transitioning into the job weeks before it was made official. She has been seen around the Virginia headquarters recently, calling old Clinton friends to make sure they are still on board, quietly interviewing staff members to determine how to work most efficiently, and even wandering the halls thanking volunteers.

"You're going to see a crisper and more energetic campaign," a close friend of Clinton's predicted.

Saturday night, Clinton settled on her decision to replace Doyle, advisers said, and informed the senior staff by conference call on Sunday morning.

"She will be able to step in and seamlessly perform the responsibilities of campaign manager going forward," senior adviser Howard Wolfson said. "Both Patti and Maggie have been very strong in their longtime service to Senator Clinton. Patti did a magnificent job as campaign manager, and now Maggie is stepping in to assume those responsibilities, and she will also do a fabulous job."

After the Clintons left the White House, Williams worked in a number of high-profile positions, including serving as chief of staff to Bill Clinton, managing his policy agenda and overseeing the staff at the Clinton Foundation in New York, according to a biography posted on the Web site of the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where Williams served as an adviser.

Williams then helped launch Griffin Williams, a management consulting firm that aims to help clients "navigate organizational challenges, transition and change," according to its Web site.

Research director Lucy Shackelford and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.