Clinton Campaign Manager Calls It Quits

Patti Solis Doyle announced that she is stepping down as the campaign manager for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y., ABC News has learned that this afternoon. In a note she sent to her staff, Solis Doyle announced that this week Maggie Williams, Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady, "will begin to assume the duties of campaign manager." Solis Doyle, 42, said she would remain as a senior adviser to the campaign. Solis Doyle, who has been with Clinton she was first lady of Arkansas, noted that "this has already been the longest Presidential campaign in the history of our nation, and one that has required enormous sacrifices from all of us and our families." She wrote that she has been "proud to manage this campaign, and prouder still to call Hillary my friend for more than sixteen years. I know that she will make a great President." The announcement came one day after Clinton's opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., swept four primary contests -- Nebraska, Washington state, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and two days before the so-called "Potomac Primary" of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., where Clinton's campaign says they do not expect her to fare well. In a statement about Solis Doyle, Clinton said she was "enormously grateful for her friendship and her outstanding work" and said she "has done an extraordinary job in getting us to this point -- within reach of the nomination." Of course, by now Clinton had expected to have secured the nomination. Clinton needs to win the Ohio and Texas contests next month, and Pennsylvania in April, and many in the campaign have more confidence that Williams will be better at ensuring those victories. After Clinton lost the Iowa caucuses, Williams was brought in to help manage the campaign. Some campaign insiders say the move took power away from Solis Doyle. Many on the campaign underline that family considerations also played a role in her decision. The mother of two young children, Solis Doyle is like many in the campaign who had expected the nomination fight to have been wrapped up one way or another by Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, and are exhausted and somewhat demoralized to think this struggle might last weeks or even months longer. SOURCE OF THIS STORY