Obama's grass-roots army may get drafted

"Barack got elected with a significant number of independent voters and a fair number of Republicans. And the agenda that he ran on is not just a Democratic agenda, it's a broad agenda," Hildebrand said. "If all of the communication comes from the DNC, it may not engage as many people as we're going to need to engage at the grass-roots level."

Hildebrand offered another argument for an independent network: It could be used to challenge Democratic lawmakers if they didn't hew to the Obama agenda. The organization, he said, could "pressure anybody who we would need to build a coalition of votes in the House and Senate."

Obama's transition aides declined to comment.

But one indication of where his senior advisors stand came this week, when campaign manager David Plouffe used Obama's vaunted e-mail list to ask for donations to help the DNC retire its debt. He even threw in an enticement that might appeal to Obama's universe of small-dollar donors: a Change Can Happen T-shirt for those who contribute at least $30.

The e-mail suggests that at least one of the most senior advisors is not hesitant about melding the campaign and the party. "We'll get to work transforming this country," Plouffe wrote in the e-mail. "But first, we need to take care of the DNC."

According to party strategists familiar with the internal debate, Plouffe and other advisors are not likely to make any decisions until January, when a new national party chairman is elected.

Those advisors, including chief strategist David Axelrod and future White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, are hearing from party insiders who think at least some of the network -- such as the estimated 10 million e-mail addresses for supporters and activists -- should be folded into the party apparatus.

Democratic strategists described a "tricky" balance between keeping the grass-roots content but recognizing the reality that Obama is now the head of the Democratic Party.

"At the end of the day, they own the DNC," said one party advisor familiar with the internal debate who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing deliberations. "Whether they merge their mailing lists or keep Obama for America as a separate entity doesn't really matter," the strategist added, using the campaign's official name.

The debate has spilled into at least one undecided political contest of the 2008 election: the Georgia Senate runoff set for next month.