Up by 51 points in the latest poll, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama of Illinois needs more campaign money like Chicago needs more sausage, but he nonetheless made it to Baltimore early yesterday for a posh fund-raiser at the Marriott Waterfront.
Obama's campaign coffers are full, and his Republican opponent, former Marylander Alan L. Keyes, appears to pose even less of an obstacle for the young state senator than he did in landslide losses to Maryland Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski. But instead of coasting through the Nov. 2 election, Obama is raising money and stumping for Senate candidates across the nation and helping the Democratic presidential ticket turn out the vote.
That's why Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, 7th District Democrat, brought him to Maryland. Cummings, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he is excited about the prospect of Obama becoming the only African-American senator and only the third since Reconstruction.
But he doesn't just want Obama to win. He wants him to be a "player."
"He has to be a player in this party, contributing to other people's campaigns and lifting them up," Cummings said. "He can't just sit there and be glad to be there, and it takes money to be a player."
Obama, 43, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School who catapulted to national notice with a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, was well in the lead in the Senate race before his first Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, dropped out in a sex scandal.
Keyes' move from Maryland to Illinois hasn't changed the dynamic. A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll published over the weekend showed Obama leading by a 68-17 margin.
Although Obama played down his role as a jet-setting political star, and his campaign spokesman insisted that his top three priorities are "Illinois, Illinois and Illinois," the candidate appeared to be taking Cummings' advice to heart.
After breakfast in Baltimore, he was scheduled for a lunch fund-raiser in Philadelphia to help Senate candidates in tight races in Colorado and Florida. After that, he was to appear at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in Pennsylvania. If not for Hurricane Jeanne, he would have headed to Florida.
In Baltimore, his breakfast with about 75 contributors was aimed at raising money for his own campaign, although he was expected to distribute cash to Democratic candidates elsewhere. His campaign did not disclose how much he raised.
