Top Democratic staffers are playing musical chairs in anticipation of the start of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

The White House is shutting down its office of political affairs, the New York Times reported. Its director, Patrick Gaspard, will become executive director at the Democratic National Committee. In 2008 Gaspard served as political director for the Obama campaign.

“He brings to the job an unparalleled passion for the President, the Democratic Party and the type of civic engagement and grassroots organizing that fueled President Obama’s victory in 2008 and that has been so important to the success of our party,” DNC Chairman Tim Kaine said in a statement.

Kaine remains a general chairman while Gaspard will take over the day-to-day operations.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, currently the executive director at the DNC, will join the re-election campaign as deputy campaign manager. During the 2008 general election she served as battleground director for the Obama campaign.

Her husband, Patrick Dillon, currently serves as the deputy political director at the White House. He’s leaving to join Democratic consulting firm Hilltop Public Solutions, according to the Washington Post.

Former deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina will manage the re-election campaign. White House Social Secretary Julianna Smoot, who was the campaign’s finance director in 2008, will also be a deputy campaign manager.

Obama’s re-election campaign will build on the DNC’s grass-roots organizing arm, Organizing for America, which was established following the 2008 elections.

Roll Call first reported that OFA recently laid off a handful of staffers working at the state level as they prepare for the 2012 campaign.