COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- President Barack Obama will use a former South Carolina campaign leader as a senior adviser in his re-election bid.
Obama's campaign said Thursday that Rick Wade will be in charge of South Carolina political affairs. Wade is also advising the Democratic National Committee on its 2012 convention in Charlotte.
Democrats have no primary scheduled in South Carolina. Republicans hold the first-in-the-South GOP primary Jan. 21.
Wade advised the campaign in Iowa and South Carolina in 2008. Those contests gave Obama an early edge.
Wade was a director of the state's substance abuse agency, a Cabinet-level position under then Gov. Jim Hodges before he left office after a single term in 2002.
He had been a deputy chief of staff at the Commerce Department.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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