By Agencies

Share Link:

William Daley will resign as US President Barack Obama's chief of staff just one year into his tenure, and will be replaced by a Washington veteran, Jacob Lew, who is the administrations current budget director, according to senior White House officials.

Daley's job as day-to-day manager of the White House operation had already been changing, if not diminishing, as a senior Obama aide, Pete Rouse, took over more of those duties in November.

Yet Daley was not expected to leave the job and return to Chicago, where his family has long held a political dynasty, until after the November presidential election.

Officials confirmed the news on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet announced it. The president planned to do so later on Monday afternoon.

"I have been honoured to be a small part of your administration," Daley said in a letter to the president on January 3 and obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

"It is time for me to go back to the city I love."

Obama will now have the third chief of his staff of his presidency in the midst of a re-election year, which could reflect negatively come election time.

Replacement

Daley is to be replaced by Jacob Lew, now the White House budget director. The change will be effective at the end of the month.

The choice of Lew puts a veteran staffer of the White House, Capitol Hill and state department in a critical position at a difficult time for the president.

Lew served as budget director under President Clinton, and as deputy director of the state department under Hillary Clinton before taking the budget job in the current administration.

He has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, where he was a senior policy advisor to the late Speaker Tip O’Neill.

Obama chose Daley to be his White House chief of staff in January 2011, but the former banker and veteran political fighter Daley has had a somewhat rocky tenure.

Daley had been brought in to improve relations with the business community, Republican politicians and others with whom he had built ties over the years.

He replaced Rahm Emanuel, who is now Chicago's mayor.

Daley served as commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton and ran Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.

He is the brother of the recently retired Chicago mayor, Richard M Daley, and the youngest son of the legendary Chicago mayor, Richard J Daley.