By John McCormick March 18 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama has campaigned for embattled Democrats this year in Massachusetts, Colorado and Nevada. There’s one trouble spot he’s so far stayed away from: his adopted home state of Illinois. Democrats’ travails since Obama last visited in July include a U.S. Senate contender facing questions about his family’s bank and a lieutenant-governor candidate who withdrew following reports he allegedly once held a knife to the throat of a former girlfriend. The state’s former Democratic governor, Rod Blagojevich , faces a corruption trial June 3. With congressional majorities at stake in the November elections, Obama may be called on to appear with and raise money for candidates in states such as Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, where analysts predict close races. Nowhere will the outcome be viewed as a reflection on his presidency as much as in Illinois, where Obama began his political career. “I’m not sure he should come right now,” said David Yepsen , a former political writer who is director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Obama has battled suggestions that he is a product of “Chicago-style” politics since his 2008 presidential campaign. Traveling to Illinois, where four of the past eight governors have faced criminal charges, could give Republicans ammunition to reignite that storyline. Incentive to Visit Still, Obama has an incentive to visit Illinois later this year and campaign aggressively for Democrats, Yepsen said. “He is going to get tarred with the outcome in Illinois whether he comes here or not,” he said. “It is going to be portrayed as a referendum on him.” Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on the likelihood of an Obama campaign visit this spring or summer in Illinois, where unemployment was 11.3 percent in January, compared with a national average of 9.7 percent. One candidate eager for a visit is Alexi Giannoulias , the Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate seat Obama held until he was elected president. Giannoulias, 34, is running against five-term Republican Representative Mark Kirk , 50. “Hopefully before November, yes,” Giannoulias told reporters in Chicago on March 11, when asked whether he expected the president to campaign with him in Illinois. Broadway Bank Republicans have linked Giannoulias’s campaign to a controversy surrounding his family’s bank. The family must raise at least $75 million by late April to meet demands of regulators threatening to close their Broadway Bank because of commercial real-estate losses. Last week, a Chicago restaurateur who gave more than $100,000 to Giannoulias was charged with defrauding banks by writing about $1.8 million in bad checks. Nick Giannis , 62, is also a former Obama donor. He gave $4,600, the maximum allowed by law, to Obama’s presidential bid in September 2007, campaign finance records show. The owner of the Boston Blackie’s chain in Chicago also donated $2,000 to U.S. Senate candidate Obama in 2003 and 2004. Obama’s campaign plans to donate to charity the contributions to it from Giannis, said Brad Woodhouse , a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. The National Republican Senatorial Committee seized on the bank issue, asking in a March 9 news release whether Obama would “campaign alongside” Giannoulias. The Republicans also told reporters that the White House had sought to convince Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run instead of Giannoulias because she has a longer political track record and doesn’t have ties to a troubled bank. Obama recognized Giannoulias, a basketball buddy, as a “potential member of Congress” during a March 9 White House event celebrating Greek independence. Earlier that day, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs promised Giannoulias White House support. Dropout From Race In the Illinois lieutenant governor’s race, Democrats are searching for a new candidate following Scott Lee Cohen’s decision to drop out less than a week after winning the Feb. 2 primary. Cohen was arrested in 2005 on battery allegations involving a former girlfriend; he denied the charges, which were dropped when the woman failed to attend a court hearing, the Associated Press reported. Obama’s job approval in Illinois is 56 percent, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey taken March 8 that had a 4.5 percentage point margin of error. His national rating in Gallup’s tracking poll has dropped below 50 percent this week. Giannoulias sought to take advantage of Obama’s popularity in Illinois yesterday, criticizing Kirk for telling supporters at a private function in suburban Chicago March 12 that Republicans are “on the way to making this guy a one-termer.” ‘Political Points’ In a statement, Giannoulias said Kirk and Republicans “care more about scoring political points for their party than listening to the people.” The statement about Obama was first reported by Politico. Stu Rothenberg , editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report , said an Obama appearance in Illinois would increase fundraising and turnout. “If Obama is going to help anywhere, he’s going to help there,” he said. Democrats in Illinois say they would like to see the president back home sooner rather than later. “I don’t think you want to run the risk of waiting too late to come,” said Kwame Raoul , a Democrat who holds the state Senate seat on Chicago’s South Side that Obama once held. “I don’t think it’s a place he can afford not to come.” To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Chicago at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net .
Original post:
Obama Skirting Illinois in Campaign Visits as Democrats Confront Scandals
