news as issues

dan pfeiffer

Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, is leaving the White House at the end of the month, sources tell ABC News. She will remain a consultant to the White House advising with long-term communications planning and other strategic issues.

Dunn will be replaced by the deputy communications director, Dan Pfeiffer.

Dunn’s departure was expected; she came on board temporarily earlier this year when communications director Ellen Moran left for a more family-friendly position at the Department of Commerce. Dunn, who advised then-Sen. Obama during the campaign, always said she was here temporarily because she wants to spend more time with her teenage son.

Pfeiffer, a Georgetown alumnus from Delaware, originally worked for the presidential campaign of Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind, but became the Obama campaign communications director after Bayh dropped out. He has worked for former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and is married to Sarah Feinberg, senior advisor to chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and a special assistant to the president.

There have been discussions at the White House about Dunn’s husband, Bob Bauer, replacing White House counsel Greg Craig. Today’s move presumably makes that switch more likely